NATO Chief Says International Community Must Help Settle Transnistrian Conflict

The international community should play a greater role in the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, told a news conference while on a visit to Moldova on Thursday. Scheffer said the problem must be resolved urgently and that the school crisis in the region demonstrates this necessity. As for the format of negotiations, the NATO chief noted that inviting new mediators at the negotiation table is a decision that rests with the present sides. Scheffer said he remained firmly convinced that Russia must comply with the obligations assumed at the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999 to withdraw its troops and weapons from eastern Moldova. It will be only then when NATO will negotiate with Moscow the ratification of the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty by the new member states of the alliance. NATO will support Moldova in its efforts to clear its territory of foreign military presence. Scheffer assured that the Transnistria issue will be included in the menu of his discussions with European Union, OSCE, Russian and Ukrainian officials. NATO, though not playing a direct role in the Transnistrian settlement, is interested in a final political resolution of this conflict, he underlined. Scheffer had discussions with President Vladimir Voronin, Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan and Defence Minister Victor Gaiciuc. The Transnistrian crisis is the centrepiece of the meetings.