Ministry of Reintegration engages in controversy with civil society

The Ministry of Reintegration denies the accusations of several non-governmental organisations against the Moldovan authorities and considers irrelevant all the claims concerning the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, a press statement quoted by Info-Prim Neo reads. According to the statement, the Chisinau officials have made great efforts at international level in order to expand the present format of negotiations on the Transnistrian conflict and consider that the EU’s and USA’s accession to the settlement process constitutes one of the biggest accomplishments of the Moldovan authorities. The real reasons behind the failure of the settlement process are outside Chisinau. The Ministry of Reintegration always tries to regularly inform the parties involved, including through public statements, so as to resume the negotiations. According to the ministry, the consultations held with all the parties involved are directed to a continuous and multilateral dialogue and to a more dynamic process of negotiations. The statement also says that the Moldovan authorities have always been acting transparently in its relations with its foreign partners as well with the Moldovan civil society and political community. All the informal meetings of the ministry with the civil society representatives were sometimes hosted the signatories of that letter. The open and constructive discussions held with the civil society and the media included the subjects mentioned in the letter. “We regret that there are some nongovernmental partners of the ministry that overlooked this detail”, the ministerial statement reads. This week, a number of nongovernmental organisations and experts released an open letter criticising the way the Transnistrian settlement process moves on. "Recently, in the diplomatic circles and expert communities, in the international and local mass media, there has been an intensification of discussions on the possibility of achieving a bilateral agreement between Moldova and Russia regarding the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. Given the non-transparent climate in which Moldovan-Russian negotiations are taking place, and the avoidance of the 5+2 negotiating format, this situation has already undermined internationally the credibility of Moldova", the open letter reads.