Transnistria and Gagauzia

CHISINAU-TIRASPOL MEETING ENDS WITHOUT RESULT

17 december, 2019

The chief negotiator of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic, its minister of foreign affairs Vitaly Ignatiev expressed regret that the meeting with his Moldovan colleague Alexandru Flenchea, held in the Chisinau Office of the OSCE Mission to Moldova on Monday, ended without a result because the Sides failed to sign the final Protocol of the 5+2 format meeting held in Bratislava yet last October.

According to the Transnistrian ministry of foreign affairs’ website, Ignatiev explained that “Transnistria agreed to the formulation proposed by the OSCE, and during the Monday’s meeting with Flenchea the parties were trying to work out variants that would reflect the objective reality that has taken shape in the Sides’ dialog”.

“We stand ready to sign a document stipulating concretely which problems we discussed and on which questions we want to see our movement forward. Unfortunately, we have no results, so far, and we will be continuing this work till the end of the year”, said Vitaly Ignatiev.

During the Monday’s meeting, he proposed to the new Chisinau Political Representative to sign three draft accords at the 1+1 level: on admission of trailers to registration to thus let them take part in the international road traffic; on removing technical barriers to trade; and on safety guarantees for officials’ travels.

“However, the Moldovan side refrained from signing under artificial pretexts, thus continuing its negative practice of ruining the existing negotiation mechanisms, which was launched by Moldova’s previous Political Representative”, reported the Transnistrian foreign ministry.

The Transnistrian side also inquired up-to-date information about the realization by Chisinau of the agreement reached in the telecommunication field, including the protocol decision and the road map, as well as concerning the closing down of criminal litigations against the sides’ officials and an exchange of the list of persons concerned.

The Tiraspol delegation raised also the question about opening of Transnistrian economic operators’ accounts in Moldovan banks.

“Transnistrian enterprise representatives and Moldovan bank officials will shortly hold a consultative meeting on the banking impasse. I hope that such conversation will give an impulse to resolving the banking question, and that soon we will see a more concrete position of Chisinau’s. It is good that the Moldovan side recognizes the presence of this problem and that the OSCE renders support to resolve it by having invited an international expert”, Vitaly Ignatiev said after the meeting.

According to him, Transnistria suggested holding a seminar with the participation of international representatives in the near future to analyze foreign practices to resolve the problems continuing in the banking sphere.

A separate question discussed by the Sides was the importation of goods to Transnistria, particularly of medicines, in the light of the joint border/customs control of the Moldova-Ukraine border.

“This is a very important, vital question, which may stand up point blank from next February 1 and create real problems to Transnistria residents. Unfortunately, I cannot be satisfied with the Moldovan side’s reply. We cannot quite understand the Chisinau’s approach. Therefore, we will continue discussing this topic at all the levels of our negotiation process”, stated Vitaly Ignatiev.

The meeting in Chisinau lasted about 6 hours, until late night, and occasionally in raised voices. According to Tiraspol, Alexandru Flenchea made several attempts to complete the negotiation, and one time he even raised and walked out, slamming the door. But then he came back.

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