Chisinau - Tiraspol, September 01 (PolitNavigator, Petr Alekseev) - Despite the political events related to Ukraine, the process and agenda of the upcoming planned negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement in the “5+2” format will not undergo significant changes.
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This was stated by the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Radojko Bogojevic following his visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol, PolitNavigator reports with reference to OSCE information.
“We hope that all parties to the process will demonstrate a constructive approach,” Bogojevic said, noting that holding the upcoming negotiations in the 5+2 format will give “a positive signal about the prospects for reducing tensions.”
The next round of negotiations in the “5+2” format, the participants of which are Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE, the USA and the EU, is planned to be held on September 11-12. Among the topics that Bogojevic discussed with diplomats on both banks of the Dniester were the situation with “Romanian” schools in Transnistria, economic cooperation, criminal cases opened by Moldovan law enforcement agencies against Pridnestrovian officials, and issues of freedom of movement.
Meanwhile, in Transnistria they note that Chisinau has created an “unfavorable background” for the next round of negotiations.
The head of Pridnestrovian diplomacy, Nina Shtanski, following a meeting with Bogoevich, stated that the criminal cases opened in the Republic of Moldova against Pridnestrovian officials, including the chairman of the government and a number of ministers, do not contribute to progress in the negotiations. The work of expert groups on economic issues, customs issues and law enforcement remains blocked, and therefore political representatives of the parties will not be able to begin considering important issues.
Tiraspol, however, retains its “intention to resolve all issues exclusively through negotiations,” while counting on the help of a third party – Ukraine. The day before, Shtanski, during a meeting with Ambassador-at-Large of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Andrei Veselovsky, expressed concern that the negotiations as a whole were “degrading due to the unilateral actions of the Moldovan side.”
“We voiced a call for assistance in certain issues where, as we think, a third party can have a positive impact,” the diplomat said, quoted by the press service of the PMR Foreign Ministry.
Andrei Veselovsky, in turn, expressed confidence that dialogue within the framework of the negotiation process is necessary, since all participants in the “5+2” format are striving for the same goal - normalizing the situation on the banks of the Dniester.