US/MOLDOVA.

A US delegation led by the State Department’s coordinator for relations with CIS countries, Assistant Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and CIS aid coordinator Richard Morningstar, paid a two-day visit to Moldova for talks with President Mircea Snegur and other top officials. The delegation assured the Moldovan leaders that the US will provide every support, including use of US contacts with Russia, to obtain the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and a settlement in Transdniester fully consistent with Moldova’s territorial integrity. (11)

Russia’s and Moldova’s prime ministers signed a package of agreements in October 1994 on the withdrawal of the troops. The Russian side refuses to honor its commitment on the pretext that the documents have not been ratified by the Duma, although they were signed as executive agreements not subject to parliamentary ratification. Meanwhile Moscow continues to ask Moldova to grant those troop basing rights. Chisinau’s negotiations with leaders of Transdniester’s Russian minority are also deadlocked because of the latter’s insistence on the recognition of their secession.

Kyrgyzstan.