Voronin and Smirnov set to meet in Tiraspol tomorrow

Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin and the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov will meet in Tiraspol on Wednesday, March 25. The meeting will take place at the Creation Center for Children and Youth starting at 10.00, the Moldovan presidential press service has said, without giving further details, Info-Prim Neo reports. Preparing for this meeting, Igor Smirnov on Monday met with Transnistrian officials to discuss the developments in the settlement process. “After the meeting held in Bender in April 2008, the President of Moldova said that the creation of joint working groups will help the sides build confidence and adopt closer positions and will create conditions for resuming the talks in the 5+2 format. But nothing was done,” the website of the Transnistrian leader says. The website also says that the Transnistrian side is open to cooperate under the reached agreements, including those made at a recent meeting in Moscow. Vladimir Voronin and 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 year. The declaration also mentioned a new peacekeeping operation under the aegis of the OSCE could be established after the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. Political analysts said that by signing the declaration the Moldovan authorities accepted Russia’s formula, which says that Transnistria has the same legal rights in the negotiation process as Moldova, which is a recognized state.