Transnistria celebrates

“Transnistria has confirmed the principle of equality in the negotiation process with Moldova”. This is how the Transnistrian foreign minister Vladimir Yastrebchak commented on the joint declaration signed at a trilateral meeting on Moscow on March 18, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the website of the Transnistrian foreign ministry. Yastrebchak said the signing of the joint declaration was “a major event” because it points once again to the equality of the two sides in the negotiation process. In addition, as Yastrebchak stated, this event shows Russia’s willingness to provide mediation assistance in the Moldovan-Transnistrian settlement process. “The fact that the parties confirmed their devotion to the present peacekeeping operation through the joint declaration is also very important for Transnistria,” the Transnistrian diplomat said. As to the transformation of the Russian peacekeeping forces into an operation under the aegis of the OSCE, Vladimir Yastrebchak said that in this case the parties confirmed the continuity of the postulates present in the negotiation process earlier. He stressed that until the conflict is solved, the current format of the peacekeeping operation in Transnistria will be preserved. “This issue will not be discussed at talks, but will be joined with the general system of guarantees for the post-conflict period,” Yastrebchak said. He also said that the format of the peacekeeping operation will depend on the way that the conflict is settled. Speaking about the agreement to resume the talks in the 5 +2 format, Yastrebchak said that the Transnistrian side was always ready to work in the 5 +2 format, but only under appropriate conditions. “This call of the Transnistrian side was included in the final document. This way we showed the participants in the talks that not all the conditions were created and that a lot of work is yet to be done until the talks in the 5 +2 format could be resumed,” Yastrebchak said. Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin and the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov signed a joint declaration in Moscow on March 18, in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. In the declaration, the parties expressed their willingness to accelerate the negotiation process and look forward to a renewal of the negotiations in the 5+2 format in the first half of this. The parties also called on the participants in the 5+2 format talks to contribute to the creation of conditions needed to renew work. The declaration also mentioned a new peacekeeping operation under the aegis of the OSCE could be established after settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. Political analysts aid that by signing the statements the Moldovan authorities accepted Russia’s formula, which says that Transnistria has the same legal rights in the negation process as Moldova, which is a recognized state. Also, by agreeing to the presence of Russian troops until the conflict is politically solved, Moldova indirectly accepted not to insist on the withdrawal of the Russian troops from its territory. According to the experts, these ‘concessions’ will have serious reperfusions for the settlement process because they will be used by Transnistria on every occasion. Thus, the resolution of the dispute will be delayed for a rather long period of time.