Ordinary people's problems will be a priority in settling the Transnistrian dispute, officials

Expert groups from both sides, Chisinau and Tiraspol, will be assembled by the end of the month in a bid to push the negotiation process out of a deadlock, it was announced today, February 8, during a meeting between Moldovan deputy prime minister Victor Osipov and Tiraspol's foreign minister Vladimir Yastrebchak, Info-Prim Neo's correspondent in Tiraspol reports. The meeting took place at the OSCE Mission's bureau in Tiraspol, on the invitation of Kazakhstan, the current holder of the OSCE chairmanship. At the end of the meeting, Kazakh Ambassador to Moldova and Ukraine Amangeldy Zhumabayev, declared that both Tiraspol and Chisinau demonstrated interest in settling the conflict, which is not just an internal one, but also has international implications. In this sense, Kazakhstan, as the holder of the OSCE chairmanship, is very interested in its resolution. “We are optimistic and today's dialogue demonstrated that a step forward will be taken”, the Kazakh diplomat said. Victor Osipov, Moldova's deputy prime minister responsible for integration, said the communication process goes on as agreed earlier. “I think we should not let the bilateral dialogue regress. Because of certain long-lasting problems of political nature there is little progress, and that's not a secret to anyone. We should not delay the identification of solutions to the problems faced by ordinary citizens because of the delay in settling some problems of political nature. The people's problems is a separate priority from the political problems and at this stage we should tackle them more intensively, including because political issues require a more comprehensive approach, in another format”, declared Victor Osipov. “We hope very much that the problems we address here will be as important for Chisinau as for Tiraspol”, Vladimir Yastrebchak said. “These are issues that concern, in particular, railway transportation, economic activity, environmental issues, emergency situations, etc. It is quite a broad range of issues and for each of them there will be identified solutions and adopted decisions”, he added. It was also announced at the meeting that the OSCE chairman-in-office, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, will soon visit Chisinau and Tiraspol.