No significant changes after the second round of “5+2” talks on Transnistrian conflict settlement
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is pleased by the results achieved at the second round of “5+2” talks on the Transnistrian conflict settlement. After a two-days meeting held in Vienna, Ambassador Erwan Fouéré, the Special Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office for the Transnistrian settlement process welcomed the constructive dialogue and urged participants to redouble efforts to achieve concrete progress.
“This latest round of talks has helped to solidify the positive results we have achieved so far since official negotiations resumed, which has in turn already contributed to bringing about some encouraging developments on the ground, including the restoration of freight rail traffic,” the Chairman said.
According to a press release, among the topics discussed were the socio-economic issues, legal and humanitarian issues and human rights, as well as the institutional, political and security issues related to the comprehensive settlement.
“We need to build on this positive momentum and move forward, on a basis of mutual trust and understanding, to address concrete issues as agreed by all participants. It is the aim of the Irish OSCE Chairmanship to encourage progress in the next weeks and months in all areas, to bring us closer to a comprehensive settlement of the Transnistrian conflict,” the official said.
OSCE press officer Sonya Yee told Moldova.ORG that the case of Alexandru Ursu, a Moldovan police officer, was not raised during the official talks, but the Moldovan and Transnistrian Chief Negotiators Eugen Carpov and Nina Shtanski addressed the issue only during their press conference.
“The issue was addressed by both chief negotiators at the press briefing that was held via video link from Vienna following the conclusion of the 5+2 talks today,” Ms. Yee said.
Alexandru Ursu was arrested in July 2009 by the illegitimate police officers in Bender town, Transnistria. A self-proclaimed court from the separatist region sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
The next official negotiations are due to take place in Vienna in September this year. The “5+2” talks were resumed in November 2011 following a deadlock of almost six years.
The Transnistrian conflict settlement is made within the “5+2” format. It includes representatives of the sides, mediators and observers in the negotiation process - Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE (as mediators), and the US and the EU (as observers).
Transnistria is an internationally unrecognized entity proclaimed in Tiraspol on September 2, 1990, initially styled the Moldavian Transnistrian Soviet Socialist Republic. Currently known as the Moldavian Transnistrian Republic, this breakaway entity consists of a narrow strip of land (180 km by 32 km) nestled between the east bank of the Nistru River and the border of Moldova with Ukraine, on a small part of what used to be, between 1924 and 1940, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1992 escalated a conflict between Moldova and Russia over this territory. A cease-fire was signed the same year by president of Russia Boris Yeltsin and president of Moldova Mircea Snegur. An agreement to withdraw all Russian forces from the trans-Nistrian districts of the Republic of Moldova was signed by Moldovan Prime Minister Andrei Sangheli and Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin in 1994. It stipulated that the 14th Army was to leave the Republic of Moldova within three years, but the agreement was never ratified by the Duma, Russia’s legislature.
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