Tajikistan operations established: Secretary-General visits area.

• Position: Boutros Boutros-Ghali; includes a related article on Georgia - Former Soviet Republics

Establishment of a new UN observer mission in Tajikistan, Ukraine's accession to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the General Assembly's acknowledgement of the Russian troop withdrawal from the Baltic States, and the Secretary-General's trips to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova--these were major developments from October to December 1994, as the UN continued to monitor the situation in the former Soviet republics.

Ukraine, in acceding on 16 November to the NPT, "reconfirmed that it is a responsible member of the international community and that it takes into equal account the interests of its own security and the imperatives of security for all", Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma told the General Assembly on 21 November.

Prime Minister Maris Gailis of Latvia declared on 7 December that the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the Baltic States was an "event of historic significance" and a "positive contribution" to regional and international peace and security.

On 4 November, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali told the press in Armenia's capital city of Yerevan that with regard to resolving regional and ethnic conflicts, including the situation in Nagorny Karabakh--a mostly Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan--the UN position could be summarized as follows: respect for the territorial integrity of Member States; preservation of international borders; inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force; and full implementation of all relevant Security Council resolutions.

New UN operation

A new truce-monitoring operation--the UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT)--was launched by the Council on 16 December. By unanimously adopting resolution 968 (1994), it established UNMOT for a period of up to six months, subject to the proviso that it would continue beyond 6 February 1995 only if the Tajik parties--the Government and the opposition--agreed by that date to further extend their cease-fire agreement.

The initial cease-fire, signed on 17 September at Tehran, Iran, had been extended until 6 February during the third round of inter-Tajik talks on national reconciliation, held from 20 October to 1 November in Islamabad, Pakistan. A protocol on a ten-member Joint Commission--five from each side--for the implementation of the agreement had also been signed.

The Council, in an 8 November presidential statement, welcomed the Islamabad accords and stressed the importance of "full and timely implementation" by the...