5+2 TALKS CAN BE CONVOKED ONLY WITH SIDES’ POLITICAL WILL – WOLF DIETRICH HEIM

To organize a big meeting in the 5+2 negotiating format [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)], it is necessary to have the political will of both conflicting sides, the Special Representative of the Austrian OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transnistrian Settlement Process, Ambassador Wolf Dietrich Heim, stated following his meeting in Tiraspol with Transnistria’s Chief Negotiator, minister of foreign affairs Vitaly Ignatiev.

The Transnistrian political representative said that over the half-year-long period of the Austrian OSCE presidency, the situation in the Chisinau-Tiraspol relations was degrading: old problems would not be solved, and new ones were appearing, in particular with the importation of foodstuffs into Transnistria via the Ukrainian territory.

In his opinion, the conflicting sides find it quite difficult to achieve practical solutions without international support in the conditions of a poor “accordability” of Chisinau representatives and of lack of a political will with them. To overcome this negative dynamic in the Transnistria-Moldova relations, the holding of a 5+2 format meeting is acquiring a principal significance.

“5+2 is precisely the international platform that lets the sides to not simply conduct dialog but to achieve solutions. In the absence of this platform, solutions are incomparably harder to reach, as the past few months showed”, believes Vitaly Ignatiev.

Wolf Dietrich Heim said he does not mind organizing a 5+2 meeting, but Chisinau and Tiraspol should first reach principal accords on the bilateral level.

“I am convinced that some of the expert teams will hold their working meetings in the nearest days, and will achieve some accords that will let us approach to arranging a 5+2 meeting in the nearest future. Its holding depends on various factors. Expert teams should materialize decisions, but this depends not only on legal and technical questions within the expert groups. This depends also on the political will of both sides, with whom we also tried to consider this question”, said the Austrian diplomat.

In conclusion, Wolf Dietrich Heim said that “to state readiness for holding a 5+2 meeting is one thing, but to consistently work for achieving results by the sides, international mediators and observers is another and much more complicated thing that needs to be done. Such a big meeting can be convoked in a matter of several weeks if only there is a concrete ground for holding it”.