Moldova and Ukraine discuss the Transnistrian conflict settlement
Ukraine is interested in resuming the railway traffic through the territory of Moldova's breakaway Dniester region as soon as possible, Ukrainian ambassador to Moldova Serhiy Pyrozhkov has said at a meeting with Moldova's new Reintegration Minister Victor Osipov.
In a statement for the media, the Ukrainian embassy in Chisinau said that the meeting focused on "prospects of resuming the Dniester settlement talks in the five plus two format [involving Moldova, the Dniester region, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE, the EU and the USA], as well as Moldovan government's possible steps aimed at solving the Dniester conflict".
For his part, Osipov said that "Chisinau's key task is to develop a viable model for a political settlement of the Dniester problem, as well as to take measures aimed at boosting confidence between people living on both banks of the Dniester River".
Pyrozhkov said that Ukraine would support such actions by the Moldovan! authorities, adding that it was interested in implementing specific confidence boosting projects in Moldova and the Dniester region. In particular, Pyrozhkov said, Ukraine was interested in speeding up work, jointly with other interested partners, aimed at creating the Dniester Euro-region.
In March 2006 the state-run Moldovan Railways Company decided to send all its trains through the north of Moldova, bypassing the Dniester region, because it could not provide the security of trains running through the breakaway region. Since 15 December 2006, in line with an agreement reached by Moldovan, Russian and Ukrainian railways, only transit freight trains and the Moscow-Chisinau-Moscow passenger train No 65/66 are crossing the Dniester region. All the other trains run through the north of Moldova. Before 2006, 10 passenger train services ran via the Dniester region.
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