Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 6 September 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 September 2004. It was answered by Denis MacShane (Labour) on Thursday, 9 September 2004 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent efforts he has made to assist Russia to withdraw its troops and ammunition from the Republic of Moldova.

Answer: Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent efforts he has made to assist Russia to withdraw its troops and ammunition from the Republic of Moldova. [187739] Mr. MacShane: We continue to encourage the Russian Federation to withdraw forces and ammunition from Moldova in line with the commitments Russia made at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in November 1999. We. along with NATO allies, will not ratify the Adapted Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty until the Russian Federation has met their commitments concerning Moldova, and other commitments concerning Georgia made at the same OSCE Summit. UK military personnel are on a standby roster as part of the OSCE Monitoring Mission, to verify the removal of Russian ammunition from Moldova. But only one trainload of ammunition has been removed in 2004 and an estimated 35-40 trainloads of Russian ammunition remains in Moldova. We hope that Russia will accelerate the withdrawal process and will continue to offer our support to verify the removal of ammunition from Moldova.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 424 c1373W;424 c1381W; 187739
Session: 2003-04
Subjects: Ammunition Armed forces Armed conflict Deployment Arms control Monitoring Russia Moldova Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk