Executive director of the Foreign Policy Association (APE) Victoria Bucataru said there are now more risks than possibilities of resolving the Transnistrian dispute in favor of the Republic of Moldova. According to her, as long as they do not clearly and transparently discuss those political agreements, either at national or international level, as well as security agreements, the Republic of Moldova is in a disfavored situation. In an interview for Radio Free Europe’s Moldovan Service, Victoria Bucataru said it is highly improbable that a compromise on the Transnistrian issue will be reached, IPN reports.
“Regrettably, they didn’t reach a viable result and, currently, there is no indicator that the conflict could be settled. Therefore, we should probably ask ourselves if the “5+2” format should be modified or not. We should probably try and see what the preconditions are and if the causes of the conflict were correctly interpreted or they were imposed by third players. Until now the Transnistrian conflict has been regarded as an ethnic conflict, but it is now evident that there are some elements of a hybrid war that was imposed by the Russian Federation, but was conceptualized only after 2014, with the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation,” stated the APE director.
Victoria Bucataru noted that the Republic of Moldova was put in the situation to hold negotiations based on three baskets, such as the humanitarian, economic and political and security baskets. Only two baskets have been opened so far. Less emphasis was placed on the Third Basket, which is related to the political and security settlement of the conflict. As long as the Republic of Moldova is made to negotiate only on these two baskets and the Third Basket, which concerns the withdrawal of the Russian troops and munitions from the Republic of Moldova in the way agreed at the Istanbul Summit of 1999, is not opened, it will be very hard to find a solution to the conflict.
Victoria Bucataru said the visit by the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transnistrian Settlement Process Franco Frattini for Moldova represents a change in positions as the initial position adopted by Frattini was rather in support of Russia’s position at the 5+2 talks. This is inacceptable for Moldova. As the representative of the OSCE, he should have a much more moderate position.
In another development, the APE director said that regrettably, things do not move on and no viable results are seen at the 5+2 talks. There is no clear country view as to the Transnistrian conflict settlement. There is a view that is shared by the Government and supported by Parliament and there is also a more recent view that was stated by the President, but this differs from that of the Government.
