NATO urges Russia to withdraw military forces from Moldova

22 member-states of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as Moldova and Georgia, called on Russian Federation to comply unconditionally and fully with the commitments assumed at OSCE Summit in Istanbul regarding the withdrawal of military forces of RM and Georgia. This statement was made in Vienna, at the Meeting of OSCE Joint Consultative Group. According to the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, NATO member-states which take part at the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (FACE) required Russia to conform to Article IV FACE Treaty, forbidding foreign military forces to stay on the national territory without the agreement of the host state. Delegations of Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan paid the attention of the states-parts at the Treaty on the necessity to withdraw all the military equipments limited by the Treaty from the zone controlled by the separatist regime of the Transnistrian region of RM and breakaway regions of Georgia and Azerbaijan. RM delegation mentioned that the military equipments limited by FACE Treaty that the separatist regime of Tiraspol has, not only undermine the solving process of the conflict, but it is as well a real threatening for the security and the stability of the whole area of FACE Treaty. The withdrawal of these equipments has to be part of the withdrawal process of Russian forces according to engagements of Istanbul. In this context, it is believed that these matters have to be mirrored appropriately in the document of the forthcoming FACE Treaty Evaluation Conference. Previously, Russian Minister of Defense Serghei Ivanov said that the Russian Federation has suspended the evacuation of the armament from Transnistria, as the authorities of Tiraspol „do not allow”. According to the Russian official, after the Soviet Union’s collapse, the Russian Federation removed out of Transnistria about a half of the whole munitions, until the authorities of these unrecognized republic were against the transporting of the armament and ammunition. Now in Transnistria there are about 1,500 active militaries of the Russian Federation.