No document has been signed after the meeting in the 5+2 Transnistrian settlement negotiation format, which took place in Bratislava on October 9 and 10. The draft protocol is in the process of being finalized . “We have all come to the conclusion that we need more time to reach an agreement on the protocol decision” stated at a press conference the head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Claus Neukirch.
Claus Neukirch said the meeting was an occasion to exchange views and examine the progress of confidence-building measures agreed in the "Berlin-plus" package. The participants also discussed top priority issues for further confidence-building measures.
According to Claus Neukirch, a lot of work is still needed to finalize the Bratislava meeting decision so as to give a boost to the confidence-building measures and to the Transnistrian settlement talks overall.
Asked about the content of the draft protocol decision, Claus Neukirch said that “nothing has been approved yet.” “It would be unprofessional to selectively quote from the draft agreement. I can only tell you that we have examined the implementation status of the elements included in the Berlin-plus protocol. We have also discussed other topics that are on the agenda. As I mentioned before, when we have the final version approved, we will publish it,” said the head of the OSCE Mission.
On the destruction of the ammunition in Cobasna, Claus Neukirch said this is rather a bilateral arrangement. The OSCE mission is mandated to enable the transparent destruction or withdrawal of the ammunition. However, this topic was not discussed at the 5+2 format meeting.
Before this the 5+2 format was convened in May 2018. According to Neukirch, a date for the next meeting has not been set.