TRANSNISTRIA PROPOSES TO HOLD INTERNATIONAL CONFIDENCE-BUILDING MEETING IN "5+2" FORMAT

Transnistria has proposed to hold an international confidence-building meeting in the "5+2" format. Tiraspol's chief negotiator Vitaly Ignatiev told journalists after a meeting with Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebrian.

"There is nothing new. It would be right to return to this practice. Because international mediation in the dialog of the parties is not enough," Ignatiev said after the meeting, which took place on Friday at the OSCE office in Bender.

He believes that the very fact that the meeting in the "1+1" format took place "is already a positive element."

"Especially against the background of statements of the Moldovan side, my Moldovan vis-a-vis in a famous interview. Then he said that Moldova was negotiating, but now he only puts Transnistria before the fact, informs about some unilateral actions, which is categorically unacceptable. This kind of interaction cannot be called negotiations," Ignatiev said.

He stressed that in honor of the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the negotiations, the Transnistrian side proposed to sign a declaration on the support of exclusively peaceful, constructive methods of solving mutual problems through dialogue. Ignatiev added that they handed the draft document to the Moldovan side and other participants in the settlement process (of the 5+2 format - "I.").

"Preliminarily, my vis-a-vis said that he did not see any negative elements in it, but the Moldovan side took time to study it...," Ignatiev said.

Serebrian said Ignatiev misquoted him.

"I said (in the interview) that Chisinau can make independent decisions on some issues on its sovereign territory. And this certainly does not mean that we are moving away from negotiations. On the contrary, Chisinau has always emphasized that we want to resolve the Transnistrian issue peacefully at the negotiating table... So we are not moving away from negotiations...," Serbian soutlined.

Commenting on the initiative to hold a meeting in the "5+2" format, Serebrian said that Moldova accepted the proposal of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ian Borg to hold a meeting in the "1+1" format in Valletta, under the auspices of the OSCE chairmanship.

"Unfortunately, it will not be possible to convene formally or informally a '5+2' now, it is not realistic. But we are open to this initiative," Deputy Prime Minister concluded.