CFE Treaty members urges Russia to withdraw its armed forces from Moldovan territory

The delegations of 17 NATO member countries which are also members of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE treaty), and also the delegations of the Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan demanded the Russian Federation to fulfill totally its engagements regarding the withdrawal of armed forces from the territories of the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. These declarations were made at the plenary meeting of the Evaluation Conference of the CFE Treaty, which takes place in Vienna, says a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. The CFE Treaty member states restated that ratifying the Treaty is possible only if all the decisions made at the Summit in Istanbul will be carried out transparently and unconditionally, especially the decisions regarding the withdrawal of Russian military forces from the territories of Georgia and Moldova. In this context the Kazakh Presidency expressed understanding for the worries expressed by the Treaty member states regarding the non-fulfillment of the relevant decisions of the OSCE Summit in Istanbul, fact which halts the process of ratifying the Adapted Treaty. The representative of the Republic of Moldova, the deputy minister of MFAEI, Eugenia Kistruga informed the international community about the fact that the stationing of the foreign troops and armament on the territory of Moldova without the consent of constitutional authorities, violates the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova and also one of the main principles of the CFE Treaty – the consent of the host-country for the stationing of foreign military armed forces on its territory. NATO and GUAM member states solicited the Russian Federation to comply with this fundamental principle of the CFE Treaty. It was emphasized that the only necessary condition for resuming and finishing the withdrawal of its armed forces from the territory of the Republic of Moldova is the political will of Moscow to obey international engagements. In this context, the United States of America draw the attention of the Russian Federation on the sovereign right of Moldova to determine the character of foreign presence on its territory, emphasizing that the CFE Adapted Treaty can not come into force in the prejudice of the other states’ sovereignty. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian Federation evacuated from Transnistria about a half of the armament until the moment the administration of the self-proclaimed Moldavian-Nistrean Republic opposed to this process, in 2003. At present, about 1.5 thousand active soldiers of the Russian Federation are stationing on the left bank of Nistru.