Voronin, Smirnov to meet again

Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin and Tiraspol leader Igor Smirnov will meet on March 25, a week after signing a joint statement in Moscow, Info-Prim Neo has learnt from the Moldovan presidency. Thursday, Vladimir Voronin informed the ambassadors of the EU countries, OSCE, the USA and Ukraine, accredited to Chisinau, he and Smirnov had agreed in Moscow to have a new meeting on March 25. According to the presidency, they will evaluate the work of those eight working groups drafting trust-building measures between Chisinau and Tiraspol and will mull new tasks in this respect. The president informed the representatives of the diplomatic missions on the sincere and constructive character of his talks in Moscow with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on settling the Transnistrian conflict. The Moldovan president said Dmitry Medvedev had reiterated Russia's availability to contribute to step up the settlement talks in the 5+2 format, what was echoed in the statement on solving the Transnistrian issue, signed in Moscow. Vladimir Voronin has stressed they had tackled the idea of rendering the present peace-keeping mission under the OSCE's aegis. The president also highlighted that the statement set a term for resuming the talks in the 5+2 format in the first half of 2009.