OSCE’s position on Transnistria destabilizes the region: Russian ministry

Negotiations on the Transnistrian conflict settlement are to take place by the end of 2017. Russia insists upon it as a mediator in the Moldovan-Transnistrian conflict settlement.

“We confirm necessity of the soonest renewal of official meetings in the ‘5+2 format’ (Moldova and Transnistria as conflicting parties, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE as mediators, the USA and EU as monitors). If the group manages to meet by the end of 2017, we will do our best to make it effective,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin has announced.

Russia believes that postponing the meeting exacerbates the situation in the region. At the same time, the foreign ministry states that the OSCE mission is to be blamed for the stagnation in the dialog.

“It is unclear why the Austrian chairmanship in the OSCE is hesitating stressing that any official meeting must be ending with signing some large-scale agreements between Chisinau and Tiraspol. It is protracting the process and even exacerbating the situation,” Karasin said.

According to the procedure, at least six meeting of the group are to be held annually. Last such meeting was held last summer in Berlin, where the parties signed a protocol that has not been implemented.

As EADaily reported earlier, the Moldovan government intends to sit to, the negotiation table by the end of the month. Prime Minister Pavel Filip has already had consultations with representatives of the mediators and monitors. The parties came to a conclusion that there are real premises for summoning the group.