​POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVES VIEWING 5+2 MEETING AGENDA DIFFERENTLY

The Chisinau and Tiraspol Political Representatives at the Transnistria settlement negotiations, Gheorghe Balan and Vitaly Ignatiev, have differing views concerning which questions should be included into the agenda of next possible meeting on Transnistrian conflict settlement in the 5+2 negotiating format.

On Thursday, Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Balan said after their 2-hour-long meeting held in the Chisinau Office of the OSCE Mission to Moldova that the next meeting of the 5+2 stakeholders [Moldova and Transnistria as the conflicting sides, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE as international mediators and guarantors (5); and the European Union and the United States as observers (2)] may be organized “in the nearest future”.

“But we do not want meetings just for the sake of just meetings. After a 2-year pause, we need to have progress on concrete problems. We must also bear in mind the stakeholders’ accords fixed in the Berlin Protocol [June 2016] and achieved at the Bavaria conference last July. However, we suggest not raising at such meetings the problems of, say, railroad communication. Such questions are soluble at the level of Political Representatives proceeding from the expert opinions of profiled specialists. We believe that at the 5+2 meeting we must work out a viable decision on the political settlement of the conflict and on accomplishing the country reintegration”, said Gheorghe Balan.

Transnistria’s minister of foreign affairs Vitaly Ignatiev stated that the Tiraspol administration is also fully ready for a big meeting in the framework of the Permanent Conference [on Political Issues within the Negotiation Process towards a Transnistrian Settlement – the 5+2 format].

“We would like to find points of contact on topics important for us: phytosanitary control of products or banking questions. Yet last June, we addressed to Chisinau with a package of proposals on these topics, but – silence. We can’t feel a feedback, can’t see that the Moldovan side wishes to solve problems”, said Vitaly Ignatiev, having called the tactics of small steps as an optimum one for Transnistria.

In his words, Transnistria is against assessing work results by the number of meetings held by profiled experts or the Political Representatives.

He refuted assertions that considerable land areas are not cultivated allegedly because the Transnistrian law enforcement do not let peasants from Moldovan villages to use the land.

“As far as I know, a greater part of the 6 thousand hectares there is cultivated, and these are hard-working Moldovan peasants, who grow good harvests and who escaped Chisinau’s efforts to politicize the land question”, said the Transnistrian chief negotiator.

In his turn, Gheorghe Balan maintained that in another acute problem – the re-equipment of Latin-script Moldova-administered schools in Transnistria – the Transnistrian authorities are putting obstacles to projects Moldova is implementing jointly with international partners.

“In Rybnitsa, for instance, we cannot start the construction of a sports ground for the pupils of the Romanian-language lyceum. The children need this ground. But to build it, we have to overcome new upon new obstacles – endless permissions. We have already delivered construction materials and the sportive equipment there – but cannot start the building works”, said Gheorghe Balan.