Defense Ministry on CIS Agreements Denunciation: Inapplicable and Irrelevant

Moldova denounces three more agreements concluded on the platform of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The Commission for Foreign Policy and European Integration approved the respective reports on the drafts on 14 February. According to the Parliament Public Relations Department, it concerns the agreement on the principles of providing the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth member-states with arms, equipment, and materiel, organization of production activities of repair enterprises, research and development, signed in Minsk on 14 February 1992. The Defense Ministry explained that the denunciation was due to its inapplicability and irrelevance, as well as to the fact that Moldova “does not interact in the military-political sphere within the Commonwealth of Independent States”. Another document to be denounced is the Agreement on Military Observer Groups and Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Commonwealth of Independent States, signed in Kiev on 20 March 1992, and the Protocol on the Temporary Procedure for the Formation and Engagement of Military Observer Groups and Collective Peacekeeping Forces in Zones of Inter-State Conflicts and in CIS Member States, signed by Moldova on 4 August 1992. The justification provided by the Ministry of Defense states that it is inappropriate to maintain the Moldovan membership in this agreement, since our country does not interact within the CIS in the politico-military field and has not de facto implemented the provisions of this agreement. In addition, the member states of this agreement are at the same time parties to the UN Charter, which, from the point of view of international law, has priority. The third document to be denounced is the Agreement on Co-operation for the Provision of Technical and Material Assistance to Competent Authorities in the Field of Countering Terrorism and Other Violent Manifestations of Extremism. The reason for denouncing the document is the lack of co-operation on this segment with the signatories, as well as the fact that the Information and Security Service (ISS) did not benefit from the provisions of this agreement, which makes it inexpedient to maintain Moldova’s membership in it. Today Russia blocked the access of the Moldovan special services to the CIS anti-terrorist database, the Information and Security Service (ISS) director Alexandru Mustiata, told a plenary session of parliament.