Andrei Stratan: Transnistria could become a precedent

“Transnistria could become a precedent proving how a frozen conflict may be solved without resorting to weapons,” Moldovan Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan said in an interview for the German newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, Info-Prim Neo reports. Andrei Stratan hopes the events in the Caucasus won't repeat in Transnistria. “In Moldova is totally different in Moldova. The Transnistrian issue can easily be settled provided there is political will. In Moldova, the question is not about an ethnic or religious conflict. We can hardly talk of a conflict in general. In any case, it's not a conflict among the people,” the deputy premier stated. “Even Russia maintains this issue is different from the one in the Caucasus. It's also a consequence of the fact that we make efforts to keep a permanent dialog with the Russian leadership,” Andrei Stratan said. The Foreign Minister considers the Transnistrian issue not being even a conflict between the political elites. “Evidently, the Transnistrian leaders are not willing to give up what they have stated during 17 years, but we are encouraged by the recent meetings of Russian president Medvedev with our President Voronin. Russia has influence over the Transnistrian leaders, what would allow us to reach a compromise,” Andrei Stratan specifies. The minister rejects the allegations that Russia would pursue the failure of the talks, thus offering the Transnistrian leaders the necessary pretext to demand for independence. “I don't think we'll reach to that. In any case, we don;t believe in the unfolding of such a scenario. We consider that Russia's interests in settling the conflict are honest,” Stratan argued. The head of the Moldovan diplomacy does not believe Russia would be interested to set Moldova the dilemma: Transnistria or the European Union. “What is Russia going to do then with Transnistria? Russia needs partners too. Moldova's orientation is out of the question and was confirmed in 2005 by the Parliament. We won't deviate from our European path and we won't diminish our efforts in the Transnistrian settlement either,”Andrei Stratan pointed out. Speaking on the possible help from the European Union, the minister has said, until now, the EU has not fully used its possibilities to back Moldova. “We won't give up our way of European integration and we hope for a clear prospect for Moldova, which, so far, has not been established in any document. We don't understand which the political risk might be if the EU recognizes, in principle, that Moldova has the prospect of joining it without a concrete date or a timetable. It's not a question of additional financial efforts, it's merely lighting green for our going to Brussels,” Andrei Stratan added. “Moldova wants to be treated as the Balkanic states,” the Foreign Minister is quoted by Info-Prim Neo as saying.