Foreign Ministry hails UN resolution on withdrawal of foreign military forces from Republic of Moldova

The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) hails the UN General Assembly's resolution on the withdrawal of foreign military forces from the territory of the Republic of Moldova, reads a message on MAE's Twitter account.

"We hail the adoption of the UN General Assembly's resolution on 'Complete and unconditional withdrawal of foreign military forces from the territory of the Republic of Moldova.' Romania has contributed to this," MAE shows on Twitter.

The UN General Assembly on Friday adopted the resolution text proposed by Chisinau on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria, a separatist region in the east of the Republic of Moldova, by 64 votes to 15 and 83 abstentions, Radio Chisinau and Deschide.md portal inform.

The Moldovan authorities insist in this document on the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Operational Group of Russian Forces, created on 1 July 1995, based on the former 14th Army of the USSR, which they state is illegally stationed on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, according to the quoted media outlets.

The draft resolution was presented to the UN General Assembly by Moldovan Foreign Minister Tudor Ulianovschi, who evoked the history of the Transnistrian issue, as well as the commitments taken on by the Russian Federation in 1999 in Istanbul and later on, in Porto, to withdraw their troops and armaments from the Transnistrian region. The process of evacuating the Russian military patrimony from the left side of the Dniester River has been blocked since 2003.

Tudor Ulianovschi also invoked the issue of peace-keeping Russian troops in Transnistria, mentioning the need to transform this mission into a civilian one, under international mandate.

The Russian Federation was against the resolution, and asked for the postponement of its debate until the next session. Russia's representative to the UN, Dmitri Polianski, said that the draft resolution presented by Chisinau isn't supported by the entire society of the Republic of Moldova, referring to some statements in this sense of President Igor Dodon. Russia also believes that such a resolution would prevent the process of regulating the Transnistrian issue.

Co-authors of the draft resolution are ten countries, among which Romania, Ukraine, Poland, the UK and the Baltic states, Radio Chisinau informs. AGERPRES (RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - editor: Adina Panaitescu)