U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said, on December 7, that the United States is ?ready to assist with reasonable costs? to foster the pullout of the Russian military bases from Georgia and Moldova.
He said, while addressing the OSCE Ministerial Council in Sofia, that Russia?s commitments, undertaken at the 1999 OSCE Istanbul summit, to withdraw its military forces from Moldova and ?to agree with Georgia on the duration of the Russian military presence there, remain unfulfilled.?
?A core principle of the CFE Treaty [on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe] is host country agreement to the stationing of forces. The United States remains committed to moving ahead with ratification of the Adapted CFE Treaty, but we will only do so after all the Istanbul commitments on Georgia and Moldova have been met. And we stand ready to assist with reasonable costs associated with the implementation of those commitments,? Colin Powell said.