Weekly meeting of the Joint Control Commission

The weekly meeting of the Joint Control Commission on April 14, 2022 began in Bender with a delay of about two hours.

The delay was caused by the so-called "border guards" subordinated to Tiraspol who unjustifiably stopped the vehicle of the delegation of the Republic of Moldova at the entrance to the city of Bender, abusively claiming the presentation of documents of members of the delegation and of the vehicle for "control", also intending to perform a verification of the vehicle. The "border guards" refused to identify themselves.

The delegation of the Republic of Moldova requested the urgent deployment of the group of military observers of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces at the spot, who documented the incident, and the representatives of Chisinau were able to travel to the venue of the meeting.

The Delegation of the Republic of Moldova condemns the abuses committed by the Tiraspol’s illegally deployed force structures in the Bender enhanced security district, which will be discussed at the meeting next week.

Regarding the JCC meeting, it had a simple agenda, without new subjecs, the report of the Joint Military Command on the situation in the Security Zone for the period 6-12 April 2022 was approved and two military observers from the Russian Federation were confirmed.

Furthermore, the Moldovan delegation requested explanations from the Transnistrian representatives in the Joint Control Commission about the situation of the journalist Vladimir Soloviov, correspondent of the Russian publication "Kommersant" and founder of NewsMaker.md, who in the same morning, until the arrival of the Moldovan delegation, had been taken from the building where the working meeting of the JCC take place and escorted to an unknown location by unidentified individuals. As far as is known, he intended to take interviews to the JCC members. The Transnistrian delegation defiantly answered that they do not know anything and need to document themselves.

The Delegation of the Republic of Moldova is deeply concerned about these illegal actions by Tiraspol's enforcement structures against media representatives, and the case will be investigated by law enforcement agencies in accordance with national law.

During the meeting, the delegation of the Republic of Moldova disseminated to the participants of the JCC an address, signed on the day before the meeting, by which it elucidated a series of other destructive actions of the Tiraspol exponents in the JCC. The address mentions their insistence on distorting the Commission's work, imposing a political agenda on it and ignoring the basic acts of the peacekeeping operation on the Nistru River.

The Delegation of the Republic of Moldova called on the representatives of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the OSCE Mission to the Joint Control Commission to contribute to the efforts of all participants in the peacekeeping mechanism towards constructive measures to strengthen trust between the sides of the dialogue.

The delegation of the Republic of Moldova to the Joint Control Commission