Vladimir Voronin: Moldova is hostage to major states’ geopolitics

The resolution of the Transnistrian conflict is conditioned by the influence of geopolitical factors, stated the President of the Republic of Moldova Vladimir Voronin at a TV program on Friday. “We are the hostages of the major states’ geopolitics”, said the head of the state, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. Vladimir Voronin revealed that the major powers are now involved in solving a range of problems as the Kosovo situation, CFE Treaty, the issue of Georgia and Ukraine’s accession to NATO. “The major states are dealing with this problems, and we are just waiting, with our poverty and the Transnistrian problem”, the president asserted, adding that he intends to raise this issue at the NATO summit in Bucharest. The president pointed out the importance of the 5+2 negotiation format in settling the conflict and reconfirmed that the single packet of documents which will lay at the foundation of the Transnistrian settlement will also be examined and signed in this format. The only document to be signed in the 5+1 format, excluding Transnistria, will be the one on the recognition of Moldova’s neutrality, Vladimir Voronin specified. At the same time, the president expressed his regret that the recent hearings held in the Russian Federation State Duma are underestimated by political analysts. “For the first time Russia stated officially from the legislature’s rostrum that Moldova ought to be an integral state but not a federation or confederation”, Voronin explained, emphasizing the fact that it is a very important event. The president also pointed out that the Transnistrian problem can be solved only by preserving good relations with the Russian Federation and forecasted that the relations with this country, which are so important for Moldova, would maintain their current direction. Vladimir Voronin expressed his belief that the election of the new president Dmitri Medvedev, as the successor of Vladimir Putin, will not affect the relations between Moldova and Russia. At the same time, the president stated “there is no way Moldova can join the European Union without Transnistria” and mentioned the achievements made in this direction: registration of Transnistria-based businesses with the Moldovan authorities, the achievements of European Border Assistance Mission, the issuance of passports to more than 300,000 Moldovan citizens from Transnistria, the access of Transnistrian youth to education on the right bank of the Nistru River. Earlier, President Vladimir Voronin stated in an interview for a Russian newspaper that the Transnistrian issue can be settled in the foreseeable future on the basis of a packet of documents, including the Law on the Basic Principles of the Status of Transnistria and the Declaration of Neutrality of the Republic of Moldova, guaranteed internationally.