OSCE MISSION HEAD DISCUSSES NEGOTIATION PROCESS IN CHISINAU AND TIRASPOL

New head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Klaus Neukirch met with political representatives of PMR and Moldova in part to discuss relevant issues of the process of negotiation on Transnistrian conflict settlement.

According to the Moldovan Bureau for Reintegration, at the meeting with Deputy Premier, Minister for Reintegration Cristina Lesnic, attended by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, the stakeholders considered a number of issues: the freedom of movement of teachers and schoolchildren from the eight Latin-script Moldova-administered schools in Transnistria; the sides' cooperation in the field of telecommunications; the access of Moldovan farmers to agricultural lands behind the Tiraspol-Rybnitsa road; the participation of Transnistrian vehicles with neutral license plates in the international road traffic.

According to the press release, participants at the Chisinau meeting also discussed the upcoming sitting of the OSCE member countries' ministers, which is planned for December.

According to the Transnistria's foreign office, at Neukirch's meeting with PMR foreign minister Vitaly Ignatiev in Tiraspol, they discussed the situation in the field of implementing the agreements, signed in November 2017. Ignatiev regarded the implementation of protocol decisions on the activity of Moldova-administered schools and the using of lands in Dubasari raion as comprehensive, pointing at the need of considerable progress in the field of criminal cases and telecommunications. The sides also discussed perspectives of organizing a new round of negotiations in 5+2 format before the end of the year.

The sides agreed on the need of elaborating a functional and acceptable for both sides mechanism of importing medicines and medical items to Transnistria, they established the fields of further work within the negotiation process, including the bank interaction, as well as other relevant spheres.

Tiraspol representative stood against any unilateral actions that may lead to tensions and aggravation of the atmosphere in the sides' dialog.