Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration and Chisinau’s Key Negotiator Gheorghe Balan said the sector working groups from all the areas meet regularly and advance, while the dialogue between the political representatives has been stagnant for two months already. After the meeting with the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian Settlement Process, Ambassador Wolf Dietrich Heim, Gheorghe Balan voiced hope that the visit by the settlement process partners will help make Tiraspol more forthcoming in the relations with Chisinau, IPN reports.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the key negotiator of Tiraspol avoids contacts with Chisinau. The last meeting of the political representatives took place in Chisinau at the start of March. They are ready to issue an invitation to the Transnistrian side to start discussing subjects from the agenda so that the sides focus on the achievement of results for the benefit of business entities and people from both sides of the Nistru.
As to Ukraine’s decision to restrict the transit of food products through the Transnistrian segment of its border, Gheorghe Balan said it is not a ban, but a kind of regularization that is being used and most of the Transnistrian companies obey this procedure. The move is aimed at avoiding particular consequences related to the transmission of diseases and such an approach is accepted not only between Chisinau and Kyiv, but also in other states.
For his part, Ambassador Wolf Dietrich Heim said the efforts in the discussions are concentrated on subjects related to education, telecommunications and transport. He expressed his confidence that the discussions within the sector working groups will become more dynamical and will then reach the political representatives and ultimately the complete format.
“It has been almost a year of the signing of the Berlin Protocol and we all expect to find the same spirit to bring the essence and substance contained in that protocol to an end. And I hope we will also find our interlocutors in a spirit, having courage and will to focus on what is essential,” stated Wolf Dietrich Heim, noting that on May 25 he will have a meeting with the key negotiator of Tiraspol.
The visit by the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian settlement process, Ambassador Wolf Dietrich Heim, to Moldova ends on May 25.
