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The United States sees a multinational peacekeeping force including
Russia in Moldova's rebel Transdniestria region as a way to resolve a
linked dispute with Moscow over arms control, a U.S. official said on
Tuesday.
"The United States is considering and discussing with our NATO allies options where we can propose to the Russians an alternative peacekeeping force for Transdniestria, one that is genuinely multilateral with Russian participation," U.S. arms official Paula DeSutter told a news briefing on Tuesday.
Western diplomats say Transdniestria is the most contentious issue behind Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement last month that Moscow was freezing its commitments under the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty.
NATO nations say they will not ratify an adapted version of the CFE accord until Russia has fulfilled commitments to remove its troops from Georgia and Moldova. With the Russian withdrawal already underway in Georgia, Moldova's Transdniestria is seen as the real sticking point.
Putin has accused NATO nations of ignoring the CFE deal, negotiated in the months after the Cold War ended to limit heavy weapons deployment between the Atlantic and the Urals mountains. He said Russia could totally quit it if no solution suitable to Moscow was found.
"These are not unresolvable problems," said DeSutter, the U.S. assistant secretary for Verification, Compliance and Implementation, who was on a trip to Europe for talks with EU and NATO officials.
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