03 October 2002
U.S. Guardedly Optimistic about Russian Ammunition Removal from Moldova
(Oct. 3, Vienna: Amb. Minikes to OSCE Permanent Council) (240) The United States is "guardedly optimistic" about a report from Russia that it is removing ammunition from Moldova, as agreed upon at the 1999 OSCE summit in Istanbul, said Ambassador Stephan M. Minikes during the October 3 session of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna. Following is a transcript of his remarks: (begin transcript) United States Mission to the OSCE Vienna October 3, 2002 STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO RUSSIAN ANNOUNCEMENT OF PROGRESS ON AMMUNITION WITHDRAWAL IN MOLDOVA Delivered by Ambassador Stephan M. Minikes to the Permanent Council Mr. Chairman, the United States would like to join you in welcoming the promising news provided by my distinguished Russian colleague. We ourselves have been following with great interest the reports of a senior Russian delegation's visit to Tiraspol last week, which does indeed appear to have been quite fruitful. We look forward to the implementation of what has been agreed to there. Thank you. Right of Reply: The United States is pleased to hear the distinguished representative of the Russian Federation refer to ammunition rolling out on trains. We very much look forward to that development and also look forward to the use of the destruction equipment that has been sitting idly -- and at a high cost -- for months and months. However, one has to say that, given the past record of disappointments, we can unfortunately only be guardedly optimistic at this point. We will reserve further comment until Ambassador Swartz presents his report to us next week. Thank you. (end transcript) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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