Moldovan PM meets special representative of OSCE chairperson-in-office

Chisinau, 18 January /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip today had a meeting with Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for Transnistrian Settlement, Ambassador Wolf Dietrich Heim, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

The prime minister welcomed the visit by the OSCE official to Chisinau, as well as a visit by the Foreign Minister of Austria in his capacity of OSCE chairperson-in-office, scheduled for the near future. “We describe these visits as a signal speaking about the importance the Austrian OSCE chairmanship gives to promoting the process of negotiations on the Transnistrian problem settlement,” Pavel Filip.    

At the same time, the prime minister thanked the last year German OSCE chairmanship, which contributed to the resumption, after a two-year break, of the five-plus-two talks, to holding the Bavaria Conference on Confidence Building Measures, as well as to the adoption of a positive declaration on the five-plus-two negotiations at the OSCE ministerial conference in Hamburg.  

According to the PM, although not all the set goals have been achieved, in particular because of the electoral campaign from both banks of Dniester, a positive dynamic was recorded. Thus, three sectoral documents were approved: a protocol on interaction in the hydro-meteorology sector, a protocol on cooperation in the field of managing fishing and sustainable use of the water biological resources of the Dniester river, as well as an additional protocol on extending the mechanism of resumption of the movement of freight trains through the Transnistrian region till late 2017.   

“I am optimistic and I think that this year will be successful in the Transnistrian settlement,” Pavel Filip said.

For his part, Ambassador Wolf Dietrich Heim confirmed OSCE’s willingness to continue the efforts in the five-plus-two format, based on the results-oriented approach, adopted during the last year.  

“Personally, I like to focus on small solutions, but with impact. Not necessarily with political connotation, but concrete actions, with correct trends,” the special representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office said.  

Prime Minister Pavel Filip specified that he shared the same approach: when one starts from the settlement of small subjects, in order to reach big ones, such the security in the region and the special legal status of the Transnistrian region as part of Moldova.

Touching upon the priorities of the agenda for 2017, the PM highlighted the removal of artificial obstacles to the free movement of people, assets and services between the two banks of Dniester, including insuring needed conditions for the good work of the Latin-script schools from the Transnistrian region, unlocking the access of farmers from the Dubasari district to their farmlands placed beyond the Tiraspol-Ribnita highway.  

In the context, Ambassador Wolf Dietrich Heim expressed confidence about the making of progress in the settlement of relevant problems from the Berlin Protocol, to which Prime Minister Pavel Filip referred, as well as of other subjects which accumulated throughout the 2016 year.   

At the same time, the Austrian official congratulated the government on the approval of the Strategy on strengthening the inter-ethnic relations in Moldova for 2017-2027 and expects the adoption of an action plan on the studying of the Holocaust.  

(Editor A. Raileanu)