Vlad Filat: The statute of Transnistria to be identified in “5+2” talks
The statute of Moldova’s breakaway region, Transnistria is to be identified within the “5+2” negotiation format. The opinion belongs to Moldovan Premier Vlad Filat who gave an interview to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“The Transnistrian region’s statute is to be identified within the ‘5+2’ talks. Moreover, after finding this solution, the final decision will be taken in Chisinau,” Premier Vlad Filat said.
According to him, the settlement of the conflict should be a long-standing one. He added that this process is quite complex, but “very clear in implementation.” Vlad Filat stated that several experts will try to find different settlement formulas.
“We have to start with our main objective – the conflict settlement in Transnistria. The Republic of Moldova is an independent, sovereign and upstanding state, giving Transnistria a special statute. This statute is to be identified,” Mr. Filat explained.
Some recent allegations say that the federalization of Moldova would be a solution for the conflict management in Transnistria. Moldovan Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca denied the ventures on a potential federalization project which would allegedly be launched by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Several political analysts have recently expressed concern about the information which appeared in press regarding some eventual German plans to propose Moldova to create a federation with Transnistria.
Vladimir Socor, who is a political analyst of East European Affairs for the Jamestown Foundation and its Eurasia Daily Monitor said that the benefits of such a step would be null, and the risks would be absolute.
“Any kind of federalization of Moldova means the dissolution of the state. It would transform the Republic of Moldova from a state in practically non-governed states, divided in small feudal principalities,” Vladimir Socor said.
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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