MOLDOVA URGES WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN TROOPS.

Addressing the UN General Assembly yesterday, Moldovan foreign minister Mihai Popov called for an "undelayed, complete, orderly, and unconditional withdrawal" of the Operational Group of Russian Forces from Moldova. "We are worried by the continued stationing of these foreign troops in Moldova in contravention to our Constitution…and despite Russia’s stated commitments at the OSCE and the Council of Europe to implement the withdrawal agreement," Popov told the Assembly. (Flux, Basapress, September 25) The 1994 Moldovan Constitution enshrines Moldova’s neutrality and rules out the stationing of foreign troops in the country. The reference to an undelayed, complete, orderly, and unconditional withdrawal reproduces a three-year-old OSCE resolution, which Moscow has failed to observe. The pledge to the Council of Europe to withdraw the troops from Moldova was among the conditions attached to Russia’s admission as a full member of the CE last year. The troop withdrawal agreement, signed in 1994, remains unexecuted (see Monitor, September 25)

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