A new round of the Transnistrian conflict settlement talks in the 5+2 format will take place in Vienna next week. The draft agenda of the future negotiations was agreed in a meeting of Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Eugen Carpov and the Special Representatives of the Transnistrian settlement process from the OSCE, Ukraine and Russia, IPN reports.

Eugen Carpov said the agenda was formulated based on the proposals of Chisinau and Tiraspol. It will include the matters that hadn’t been discussed earlier. According to him, the officials underlined that communication on a number of platforms worsened and the working groups should be stimulated. 

The official added that the Moldovan authorities will be very grateful if the observers and mediators in the negotiation process formulate their own recommendations and proposals for improving communication between the two banks of the Nistru River and for stopping the unilateral actions.

Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Protracted Conflicts, Ambassador Andrii Deshchytsia said the OSCE chairmanship held by Ukraine considers that meetings between the political representatives of Tiraspol and Chisinau should take place more often. He insisted that the working groups should meet as often as possible and exchange opinions.

Special Representative of the Russian Federation, Ambassador at large Sergey Gubarev said the main thing that should be done now is to work out mechanisms for bringing the two banks of the Nistru closer as is naïve to think that confidence can be easily restored after 20 years of conflict. He underlined that Russia has a negative attitude towards the unilateral actions taken on the Nistru.

Special Representative of the Ukrainian OSCE Chairmanship on Transnistrian Settlement and Ambassador to Moldova Serhii Pirozhkov said the meeting in Chisinau was a beneficial one. According to him, a complete picture of the next week’s events will be created after the meeting that will take place in Tiraspol today.

On July 11, the delegation will travel to Tiraspol to meet with Transnistrian leader Yevgeny Shevchuk and Transnistrian Chief Negotiator Nina Shtanski and to attend the meeting of the Chief Negotiators Eugen Carpov and Nina Shtanski. The next round of talks in the 5+2 format will take place on July 16-17.