20 years since the deployment of peacekeeping troops on the Nistru, retrospective

“The 5+2 format was just a mistake”, “the peacekeeping operation on the Nistru is one of the most successful in the world”, these are just some of the statements made during the international scientific-experimental forum organized in Tiraspol marking 20 years since the deployment of peacekeeping troops in the security zone, Info-Prim Neo learned from the press on both banks of the Nistru. Gagauzia Governor Mihail Formuzal stated on his official webpage that the peacekeeping operation in Transnistria is one of the most successful in the world. “Leaving aside the ideological statements of some politicians, and looking straight into facts, we can state the following: 20 years of activity of the peacekeeping troops managed to prevent a new armed conflict and secured safety in the region ”, stated the Governor. According to www.news.es-pmr.com, Russia’s Deputy Ministry of Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin tweeted that “nobody would replace the peacekeepers on the Nistru”. In the same context, the politician said that the peacekeeping operations in their current format are a guarantee regarding the political settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. The carried operations will ensure real solutions that will satisfy both Chisinau and Tiraspol. Leader of the Social Democratic Party Victor Selin declared on his party’s website that the attempt to settle the Transnistrian conflict through negotiations in the 5+2 format was just a mistake. “Russia and Moldova didn’t expect that the geopolitical interests of the countries in the 5+2 format wouldn’t correspond to the goals and objectives of the bilateral agreement of 21 July 1992, signed by Moldova and the Russian Federation”, declared Victor Selin. In Victor Selin’s opinion, the Russian Federation as guarantor of the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict and mediator in the negotiations between Moldova and the Transnistrian region has the right to develop a strategy that would assure mutual trust between the eastern districts and Moldova and their tendency to move towards the building of a federative country Moldova. During the forum, the head of the Moldovan Socialists’ Party Igor Dodon declared that it was time to start serious talks regarding the federalization of the country as the only solution to reunify Moldova’s territory. Moreover, Igor Dodon presented the Socialists’ Party view on the main goals that Chisinau and Tiraspol must reach in order to reduce the political distance between the two banks of the Nistru 20 years after their separation. Recently, OSCE adopted a Resolution inviting all the participants in the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict to consider the transformation of the current peacekeeping format into a civil one under international mandate.