TRANSNISTRIA IS FAR FROM BEING A PRIORITY IN EU-RUSSIA DIALOG - GERMAN EXPERT

Professor of the Free University of Berlin Ekart D. Stratenschulte maintains that the issue of the Transnistrian settlement is not a priority in dialog between the European Union and the Russian Federation.

At the Wednesday's security conference in Chisinau, he said that problems appear in this field when it comes about presence of foreign army and munitions, because the talks around the evacuation are held for already over 20 years.

"Russia stands as defender of Transnistria, and as long as such a situation preserves, no solutions on settlement, proposed by Chisinau and Tiraspol, will ever function", the expert said.

According to him, this is why it is necessary to propose something to Russia to motivate the evacuation of troops.

"Here the question occurs - who and what must propose. We can talk about Moldova, as it demonstrated intentions to join the Eurasian space [the RM is observer in the Eurasian Economic Union] and it may be supposed that if it joins the EAES this will contribute to conflict resolution. On the other hand, it can be supposed it is Kremlin and the EU that must hold negotiations on this. However, negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement are not among the highest priorities. Do not get me wrong, this is a frozen conflict, where the situation is quite stable, unlike in the Nagorny Karabakh, for example. The EU has many other questions on which it has to hold negotiations with Russia", he said.

The expert also said that he sees no opportunity that the EU and Russia to hold negotiations and find solutions on this issue in the nearest time.

"But, never say never. The most important is that the Moldovan authorities to maintain close connection with the Transnistrian region to avoid big divergence of views when the opportunity of reunification appears", said Ekart Stratenschulte.