MOSCOW, July 9 (AVN) - Moldovan Defence Minister Viktor Gaiciuc will arrive here on Monday to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov the next day, a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry told the Military News Agency.
Moldovan defence ministers have not visited Russia for 10 years, the spokesman said.
The two ministers will discuss military and technical co-operation between Russian and Moldovan Armed Forces, the stationing term of the Russian troops group in the self-proclaimed Trans-Dniester Republic, normalisation of the situation on the area and the state of the peacekeeping forces of Russia, Moldova and Trans-Dniester. The unified peacekeeping contingent in the security zone amounts at 1,500 people and 98 pieces of ordnance.
Primarily, the talks will concern the forthcoming wide-scale withdrawal of arms, ammo and materiel of the Russian group from the republic in accordance with the Russian-Trans-Dniester protocol on demilitarisation of the republic's territory. The first train left for Russia on July 2.
The ministers will co-ordinate the term and schedule of the group's withdrawal. Transportation of the group's current stocks of military equipment, ammo and materiel demands 1,500 military trains. The whole amount includes 50,000 pieces of small arms, almost 800 artillery systems, 650 pieces of ordnance and some 500 pieces of engineering equipment.