The Moldovan constitutional authorities and the Transnistrian administration have dissenting opinions as regards the approaching between the two banks of the Nistru River. Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Eugen Carpov considers that the dialogue with Tiraspol warmed up, while Transnistria’s political representative to the talks Nina Shtanski is not as optimistic as her colleague from Chisinau. She believes that the dialogue between the rounds of talks in the 5+2 format is very passive, IPN reports.

The two had a meeting with the OSCE Special Representative for Protracted Conflicts Andrey Deshitsa, who visited Moldova on April 23-25. Eugen Carpov told the journalists that the April 24 meeting centered on the next round of the talks in the 5+2 format that will take place in Odessa at the end of May.

According to Carpov, before Andrey Deshitsa’s visit, the common Chisinau – Tiraspol working groups had a number of meetings where they spoke about agriculture, ecology and free movement of the people from the two banks of the Nistru. The agreement to ensure the free movement of the people over the river during the Easter holidays will approach the two banks and will help the sides to understand each other better.

However, Nina Shtanski said she does not consider that the dialogue with Chisinau improved as, between the rounds of talks, it is passive and she had only one meeting with the representative of Chisinau since the last round. She voiced hope that the negotiations will be more constructive than now and authorities’ actions will be aimed directly at the people.

Andrey Deshitsa said that Ukraine, which holds the OSCE Chairmanship, supports all the efforts to create a productive dialogue between Chisinau and Tiraspol. He visited Rybnitsa and inspected the metallic mechanism used to cross the Nistru to Rezina and back. Both of the sides want it to be dismantled as it is very old and dangerous. The OSCE will support the initiative to take it down.