Bendery, 29 September. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The atmosphere at today's JCC meeting was rather tense. In the absence of its chairman, the Moldovan delegation did not feel like having a constructive dialogue.
The sides outlined one more time their views on a range of topical issues, shared concerns about the conduct of military drills (by both Moldova and Pridnestrovie) near the Security Zone.
At the previous meeting, the Pridnestrovian delegation had proposed to discuss all these aspects as a separate issue and make a decision thereon.
«These issues should be in some way under the JCC's control. We understand these are military units. Of course, the JCC must handle the situation and make certain decisions," said Pridnestovie's co-chair to the JCC Oleg Belyakov.
Moreover, Tiraspol officials called on their Moldovan colleagues to resume the practice of holding joint military exercises of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces, which have not been conducted for two and a half years.
According to Oleg Bekyakov, the Moldovan side has not yet replied.
Other important issues relating to the functioning of the peacekeeping operation remain unresolved as well. In particular, the Pridnestrovian side expresses concern about the systematic blocking of monitoring visits by military observers to law enforcement posts in the Security Zone. There have been 296 cases of this kind over the past two years. The traditional joint inspection of the readiness of peacekeeping posts for winter is also undecided. The discussion of all these topics, however, was disrupted, and the work of the JCC was blocked in violation of the regulations.
«We really see today that because of the blocking of the JCC's work by the Moldovan side, we simply cannot proceed to these issues. However, we are open to dialogue; the Pridnestrovian side has proposals on every item on the agenda. But we do not see for now any willingness on the part of the Moldovan delegation," said Oleg Belyakov.
