At the end of his visit to Moldova, the Special Representative of the Austrian OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transnistrian Settlement Process Wolf Dietrich Heim said he is “restrainedly optimistic” about the resolution of the Transnistrian dispute, noting there are now better conditions for holding discussions than earlier, IPN reports.

Ambassador Heim said the OSCE wants the meetings in the 5+2 format to be open and transparent and is thus trying to maintain the approach established during the previous years. Currently, the team of experts is preoccupied with the working out of the agenda of the meeting in the 5+2 format, which will center on economic issues, communications and transport, border crossing, work of farmers and Latin-script schools. The first positive results of the agenda are expected to appear during the next few months.

The official could not say when the next meeting in the 5+2 will take place, but expressed his conviction that this will be definitely held.

Wolf Dietrich Heim said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria Sebastian Kurz paid a visit to Kiev and Moscow, where he discussed the possibility of intensifying communication in the 5+2 format. The Austrian minister is expected to come to Moldova on February 3-4 this year. He will meet with the Chief Negotiators of Chisinau and Tiraspol.

The new the Special Representative of the Austrian OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transnistrian Settlement Process has been in Moldova on January 17-20. In Chisinau, he met with Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu, Prime Minister Pavel Filip, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration and Chief Negotiator Gheorghe Balan, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Lilian Darii. The ambassador visited also the Transnistrian region.