TIRASPOL, July 4 (Itar-Tass) —— Chisinau and Tiraspol have good chances to resume talks on the resolution of their conflict in the “5+2” format (Moldova, Transdniestria, the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine, and observers from the United States and the European Union), Head of the OSCE Mission in Moldova Philip Remler said.
He met with Transdniestian leader Igor Smirnov on Monday, July 4, to discuss the results of informal consultations held in Moscow in late June and prospects for resuming the talks.
Remler said he was convinced that all problems could be solved only in a negotiated way.
Smirnov accused Moldova of foiling the talks. “My statement is based on the fact that the Moldovan side had to make a political decision in the resumption of railway service through Transdniestria. You know that the working groups of the sides came to agreement on this matter, and all the necessary protocols were signed. Representatives of Ukraine, Moldova and Transdniestria participated. The result is that nothing has been solved, and we are standing still,” Smirnov said.
He regretted the fact that “the working groups have halted their activities completely and the agreements signed by the sides are not implemented, which makes it impossible to solve the problems of people in Transdniestria and Moldova”.
“Based on this, we can make a conclusion that Chisinau is foiling the talks. I think attempts will be made to put pressure on our state, and we are preparing for that. But this will do no one any good,” Smirnov warned.
In his opinion, such actions can lead to instability and appropriate measures.
Moldova is planning to resume pressure on Transdniestria rather than talks with it, the Foreign Ministry of the breakaway republic said after Moldovan Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca’s remarks in Bucharest in June.
In Bucharest, Leanca said Tiraspol should “understand that outside Transdniestria there is another way of thinking and there are other realities” and that “there are leverages and possibilities to make it change its point of view”.
“Our position is as follows: such principles as Moldova's sovereignty, territorial integrity and its European prospects are the red lines that cannot be trespassed. And talks on Transdniestrian settlement must begin without any preliminary conditions,” Leanca said.
According to the Moldovan minister, Chisinau is engaged in negotiations on the Transdniestrian settlement with partners from both the West and the East. “There is a common stance with Russia on certain aspects of the Transdniestrian conflict,” he noted.
“They [Transdniestria] have their own foreign trade, their own interests and liabilities, which implies that there are certain levers and possibilities to make them slightly change their thoughts and vision. For these ends we need support from our partners from outside the country,” Romania's Realitatea TV channel quoted Leanca as saying.
Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi spoke against resolving the Transdniestrian conflict through federalisation of Moldova.
He drew a comparison with the conflict resolution plan worked out by the Moldovan and Transdniestrian authorities in 2003 with the mediation of Dmitry Kozak, who was Russian presidential deputy chief of staff at that time.
“The Kozak plan was not accepted because in reality it did not guarantee Moldova’s integrity and sovereignty. Therefore there is no need for a federative project. The Transdniestrian conflict should be resolved in the ‘5+2’ format [Moldova, Transdniestria, the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine, and observers from the United States and the European Union], which would provide guarantees for Moldova’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Baconschi said.
He also called for better Romanian-Russian relations, which he thinks will facilitate democracy in Moldova.
“Normal relations with Russia are desirable both in Bucharest and Moscow,” he said.
The memorandum laying out the main principles of the state system in the unified state of Moldova, which was referred to as the Kozak Plan, called for turning the country into a federation, where Transdniestria would have had broad autonomy, and Russian peacekeepers would have stayed in the region to oversee compliance with the agreement.
Hours before the signing ceremony, former Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin refused to sign the document, citing the need to discuss it with Western partners.
Transdniestria is ready for talks on conflict resolution in the region, the leader of the unrecognised republic, Igor Smirnov, said earlier.
“We did not reject or break up the negotiations,” he said.
The Transdniesterian settlement talks in the “5+2” format were broken up at the end of February 2006.
Chisinau and Tiraspol managed to resume the dialogue with Russia's assistance two years later at the level of political representatives. They gathered every month to resolve pressing problems of the population of Moldova and the breakaway republic.
In March 2009, the negotiations were resumed again after the trilateral meeting of the presidents of Russia, Moldova and Transdniestria.
The standoff between the breakaway territory and Moldova's central government escalated into a bloody armed conflict in 1992 where thousands of people lost lives or were severely wounded.
Russia's peacekeepers were brought into the zone of the Dniester conflict in 1992, which made it possible to stop the armed conflict.
The Moldovan government has submitted to the European Union a new Transdniestrian settlement strategy aimed at making Moldova more attractive to the residents of Transdniestria.
Transdniestria is formally a part of Moldova that has a predominantly non-Moldovan population and that has been seeking independence for itself since the very beginning of the 1990's.
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