​FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER SPEAKS FOR MOLDOVA’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY AND FOR SPECIAL LEGAL STATUS FOR TRANSNISTRIA

The parameters of the Transnistria conflict settlement process are remaining unchanged: restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova with a special legal status for Transnistria, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated in the course of his visit to Moldova on July 25-26.

Steinmeier stressed that the success in the settlement process “fundamentally depends on the resolve of the sides to achieve progress to the benefit of the people. But it is also a result of the remarkable unity of international mediators.”

Besides the OSCE, the international mediators are the Russian Federation and Ukraine, as well as the European Union and the United States of America as observers, the OSCE Mission to Moldova reported in its press release on the results of the visit.

“With a view to the Transnistrian conflict we have recently made considerable efforts to inject new momentum to the negotiation process between the sides which had come to a standstill for quite some time,” Steinmeier said, and continued, saying that it is a priority now to ensure a sustainable effect of the 5+2 talks, which resumed in Berlin on last June 2-3.

“We must now, as a first step, tackle those problems that can be solved pragmatically in order to enhance the trust between the sides that is necessary for more far-reaching measures.” As examples of such confidence-building measures, Steinmeier referred to the re-connection of telecommunication networks, the apostilization of Transnistrian university diplomas and progress on the car license plate issue.

In the course of his visit to the Republic of Moldova, Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited also Tiraspol, but failed to meet Transnistrian president Yevgeny Shevchuk there, who was said to be sick at the moment.

In Tiraspol Steinmeier was received by Transnistrian supreme soviet speaker Vadim Krasnoselsky and the region’s prime minister Pavel Prokudin. The interlocutors discussed questions related to resumption of the 5+2 format negotiation process and the perspectives of participation of the Transnistrian and Moldovan legislatures in the Transnistrian conflict settlement process.

The Transnistrian officials named as the acutest problem at the moment the blocking by Moldova and Ukraine of Transnistria’s imports by the railroad transport. They asked international assistance to resolve this problem, including by means of convoking an emergency 5+2 meeting.