Moldova and Transnistria unblock Joint Control Commission

For the first time in the long period, work of the Joint Control Commission on the Transnistrian conflict settlement has been unblocked. Representatives of the parties started discussing the agenda, including reports of the Joint Military Command on the development in the security zone over the last ten weeks.

Besides, the commission approved new military monitors from the Russian Federation. At the same time, Moldova decided not to participate in appointing a new representative of Russia in the commission.

“Nevertheless, the work in this field will be continued. It was mentioned in a special note in the protocol of the extraordinary meeting of the commission. This means that the parties see the question as legitimate to be on the agenda and to be discussed. Signatures under the protocol confirm that it is possible to discuss the question,” Transnistrian member of the Joint Control Commission Oleg Belyakov said.

The negotiators continued discussing the freedom of movement in the security area. Positions of the parties remained unchanged. The Moldovan delegation insists that the conflicting parties should not participate in the monitoring, while Transnistria says the current mechanism of the peacekeeping operation allows participation of both military monitors and members of the Joint Control Commission.

“We are imposed some certain conditions that this must be an OSCE mission, some completely different formats, someone instead of military experts should prepare analysis of the situation. There is a functional format of the agreement of 1992, it attributes monitoring issues to responsibility of the military and the JCC. We can drive to any checkpoint, any military unit and check any part of the peacekeeping mission,” Belyakov said.

“It would be counterproductive to reshuffle the situation completely, so Transnistria insists on the current format and monitoring in the current form,” he concluded.