Moldovan deputy premier, OSCE special representative discuss Transnistrian settlement

Chisinau, 16 February /MOLDPRES/ - Deputy Prime Minister Gheorghe Balan on 15 February had a meeting with Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transnistrian Settlement Process, Ambassador Cord Meier-Klodt. The German diplomat was accompanied by Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Ambassador Michael Scanlan and another two OSCE diplomats, the Bureau for Reintegration has reported. 

In the beginning of the meeting, the sides discussed government’s priorities in the Transnistrian settlement, as well as Germany’s goals in exercising the OSCE chairmanship in 2016.

The deputy prime minister made a retrospective of the negotiating process. Gheorghe Balan noted that the five-plus-two talks continued to represent a platform of dialogue to identify a viable solution in the Transnistrian settlement and working out a special legal status of the Transnistrian region, by observing Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.   

In this context, the Moldovan leadership said that one of its priorities was the resumption of the five-plus-two negotiations, including through working meetings between the chief negotiators and sectoral working groups to strengthen confidence measures.

The participants in the meeting tackled subjects on the Chisinau-Tiraspol interaction in diverse technical aspects. The sides also highlighted a number of  positive results achieved at a conference titled, Confidence Building Measures in  Transnistrian Conflict Settlement Process, held in the German city Rottach-Egern on 29-30 October 2015.  

At the same time, the deputy prime minister insisted on the need to identify solutions to the most pressing problems faced by the residents on the two banks of Dniester, particularly in terms of access of Dubasari district farmers to farmlands placed beyond the Camenca-Tiraspol highway, whose right to property has been harmed.  

The deputy prime minister also approached a string of issues of the free movement and observance of human rights in the breakaway region. Balan expressed concern about the problems hitting the normal work of the Moldova-run institutions and enterprises working in the Transnistrian region.   

Ambassador Cord Meier-Klodt thanked the deputy prime minister for openness. The German diplomat informed that he would also have other meetings both with Moldovan officials and Tiraspol representatives, to discuss possible ways of advancement in the Transnistrian settlement.  

(Editor M. Jantovan)