The Special Representative of the Austrian OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transnistrian Settlement Process Wolf Dietrich Heim paid a working visit to the Transnistrian region, IPN reports.
One of the subjects on which the Transnistrian administration insisted was the resumption of full-scale freight railway communication throughthe the Transnistrian segment, as it was agreed with Chisinau last June.
For his part, Wolf Dietrich Heim said he visited the Transnistrian region as the OSCE Special Representative in order to form a ‘fresh view’ on the situation.
The leader of the so-called legislative body of Transnistria Alexandru Shcherba voiced hope the involvement of the OSCE as a mediator in the Transnistrian conflict settlement talks in the 5+2 format will be successful. “This format must remain a platform for solving the existing problems. First of all, conditions should be created for the free movement of people and goods so as to develop entrepreneurial activity,” stated Shcherba.
In the meeting with the Austrian diplomat, Chief Negotiator of Tiraspol Vitaly Ignatiev said the participants in the Moldovan-Transnistrian dialogue set the goal of solving the social, humanitarian and economic problems that make the people’s life difficult as soon as possible.
“We see that our success is based on the collective effort and we will achieve progress in the 5+2 format also over issues that are outside this format,” Ambassador Wolf Dietrich Heim stated at the end of his visit to the region.
Austria took over the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office at the beginning of 2017. OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, will pay a visit to Chisinau at the start of this February to also agree the agenda of a new round of talks in the 5+2 format (Moldova and Transnistrian administration; OSCE, the Russia Federation and Ukraine (Mediators) and the European Union and the United States (Observers).
The self-proclaimed Moldovan Transnistrian Republic (Transnistria) is not a subject of international law and is considered an integral part of the Republic of Moldova, over which the constitutional authorities do not have control.
