The presence of a ceasefire agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova is proof that a war took place between the two states in 1992. This opinion was expressed by Vlad Lupan, former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova to the UN. According to the expert, the most appropriate formula for settling the Transnistrian conflict would be to establish a civilian mission with an international peacekeeping mandate.
During public debates held by the IPN News Agency, former Transnistrian conflict negotiator Vlad Lupan said that by fuelling the conflicts in the eastern region, the Russian Federation aims to keep the area in its sphere of influence and prevent the expansion of the North Atlantic bloc.
"In the case of the Transnistrian conflict, the Russian Federation has geopolitical interests. In the case of Georgia, similarly, there are geopolitical interests, which are still visible. The conflicts in Georgia and Ukraine are also linked to the 2008 NATO summit decision to deny these countries membership because of frozen conflicts. When this sentence was pronounced, the Russian Federation understood that as long as there are conflicts, these countries will not join NATO", said Vlad Lupan.
The expert said that the notion of "war" is an appropriate one for the armed conflict of 1992, while the ceasefire agreement signed between Chișinău and Moscow is an additional argument that corroborates the claim.
"The 1992 agreement signed between Moldova and the Russian Federation is a ceasefire agreement. Such agreements are signed between two countries in a state of war. This agreement confirmed that there was a war between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation, even if Moscow does not recognise this at this point in time" Lupan said.
According to the expert, the idea of replacing the current peacekeeping mission in the Transnistrian region with a civilian mission with an international mandate would be the right formula for settling the Transnistrian dispute. Moscow is the only one opposed to such a scenario.
"In our case, a peacekeeping operation involving a neutral state would be a solution acceptable to everyone. A neutral state that leads the operation would not be a NATO member. Previously, such a formula was not accepted. In 2003, the EU was ready to discuss such an idea. However, in parallel, negotiations on the Kozak memorandum were taking place, which caused the whole thing to collapse. We all know the end result," the expert said.
The public debate on "Settling territorial conflicts in the Eastern Partnership: In search of a tailor-made EU approach" is organized by the IPN News Agency as part of the project "Developing political culture in public debates" and is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
