MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. The mandate of the current peacekeeping mission in Transdniestria is far from being exhausted, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday in connection with attempts to reform the peace-keeping mission in the self-proclaimed republic.

“We are forced to state that certain political forces in Europe remain obsessed with the idea of transformation of the peacekeeping mission in Transdniestria into some sort of peace guarantor mission,” the Foreign Ministry said. "The underlying motive of the political forces in Europe pressing for a transformation of the existing peacekeeping mission is the intention to have the Russian peacekeeping contingent removed from the area of the conflict at any cost," it added.

The ministry recalled that “the topic was recently raised at a round table meeting in Brussels devoted to a reform of the peace-keeping mission in Transdniestria, in which representatives of different political forces and movements took part.” “The operation in Trans-Dniestria is unique in a sense. Over 22 years, not a single peacekeeper was killed and there was not a single major clash.”

“Russia, Moldova and Transdniestria, which launched the joint peacekeeping operation and then Ukraine, which joined it later, made a decision from the outset that its reformatting will happen only if and when conditions are in place for political agreements on the Transdniestrian settlement,” the Foreign Ministry’s commentary runs. “The parties came close to such a situation back in 2003, but direct intervention by Brussels and Washington forced the Moldovan side reject that opportunity. The signing of the document known as the Kozak Memorandum was upset,” the Foreign Ministry said.