OSCE MISSION HEAD DISCUSSES TRANSNISTRIAN SETTLEMENT ISSUES WITH TIRASPOL NEGOTIATOR

Ambassador Claus Neukirch, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, visited Tiraspol on Monday, where he discussed Transnistrian conflict settlement questions with Transnistria’s chief negotiator and its minister of foreign affairs Vitaly Ignatiev. According to Ignatiev’s press service, the interlocutors focused on “the negative dynamics of the Tiraspol-Chisinau dialog at the current stage”.

The Transnistrian side informed the OSCE Mission Head about the restrictions being put by Moldova against Transnistrian enterprises, including the Almavis company, in what concern their imports, and about the lack of Chisinau’s reaction to solving this problem.

Ignatiev said that Transnistria’s cargoes are being unlawfully detained in the Moldovan territory under all kinds of invented pretexts, and this practice is only generating an extra tension in the sides’ relationship.

The interlocutors also discussed the perspectives of organizing a new meeting in the 5+2 negotiating format and work activities in the context of the Swedish OSCE Presidency in 2021.

The Transnistrian side did not explain which cargoes were meant. Last week, for instance, Moldovan customs officers arrested a considerable consignment of contraband cigarettes, which Transnistrian economic operators tried to smuggle into the mainland Moldova. The entire consignment was unloaded and locked up in a warehouse in the Stefan Voda Raion.