The Munich Security Conference is the largest informal platform of world leaders that centers on political, security, defense and economic problems, increasingly on economic problems. Moldova’s presence at such an event is important as this offers visibility to the country and also the possibility of establishing contacts, meetings, stated Moldova’s Ambassador to Germany Oleg Serebrian.
“We can say that we are witnessing a kind of geo-economization of international policy, if we look principally at the list of subjects discussed this year in Munich. The 2020 edition of the Munich Security Conference brought together over 40 Heads of State and Government from four continents and a lot of ministers of foreign affairs, ministers of defense, heads of intelligence services,” Oleg Serebrian stated in an interview for RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service that is quoted by IPN.
The conference this year didn’t include a session centering on the Transnistrian conflict or the conflicts in the Black Sea region in general. “There were years when sessions were devoted exclusively to the conflicts in the Black Sea region, where invitees from the Republic of Moldova, the President or the Prime Minister, intervened, like in 2018, for example. Anyway, we hope that this will happen at next year’s edition. The Transnistrian conflict and the other conflicts that form a semicircle around the northern region of the Black Sea will be debated and more attention will be devoted to them,” stated Oleg Serebrian.
Speaking about the bilateral dialogue between Chisinau and Berlin, the ambassador said that this is good. The Republic of Moldova forms part of the Eastern Partnership of the European Union. It is normal that the European partners’ expectations, especially of such countries as the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, are always great.
Oleg Serebrian noted that Germany, as the EU, wants the Transnistrian conflict smoldering at the EU’s borders to be resolved. It is in the interests of the European Union and of Germany to have peace at the more unsettled borders of the EU. The Transnistrian issue, even if it is considered frozen, has a rather great detonation potential and involves important players. Its unfreezing can powerfully disturb European security in general. The 5+2 format talks involve the EU and Germany aligns itself with the European policies. Berlin is probably one of the most active European capitals in this dispute.
“Let’s remember the “Berlin plus” project launched in Berlin in 2016, related to the “small steps policy” in the Transnistrian case, then the traditional Bavarian conferences held in autumn with the participation of the OSCE and those involved in the Transnistrian conflict. It is a generous discussion platform offered by the German partners, where attempts are made to find solutions to definite problems that persist between the two banks of the Nistru. These are the particularities of Germany’s position on the Transnistrian dispute,” said the ambassador.
