Moldovan Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador due to troop rotations in Transnistria
The Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Chișinău, Farit Mukhametshin, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova due to the announced rotation of Russian peacekeepers in Transnistria.
“Moldovan authorities are outraged to learn of an official statement by the Russian Defense Ministry regarding the first round of a rotation of the so-called battalion of peacekeepers from the Russian Task Force in the Transnistrian region of Moldova,” the Deputy Foreign Minister of Moldova, Lilian Darii, stated.
The diplomat stressed that it is inadmissible to deviate from the agreements already made between Moldova and Russia regarding the mechanism for rotating peacekeepers. Darii indicated that in accordance with the agreement on the peaceful settlement of the Transnistrian conflict that was signed on 21 July 1994, the rotation of the Russian military contingent involved in the peacekeeping operation in Transnistria, is to be conducted from military units deployed in the Russian Federation.
As a result, the Foreign Ministry of Moldova “is bewildered by the campaign conducted by Russian military in the Transnistrian region to recruit inhabitants of Transnistria into the Russian armed forces.”
The Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Moldova also reminded the Russian diplomat about the Istanbul Summit Declaration of 1999 in which Russia committed to withdraw its troops and weapons from the territory of Moldova.
That is why, Moldova, according to Darii, continues to insist on the replacement of the Russian military contingent in Transnistria with an international mission of civilian observers.