Political representatives of Chisinau, Tiraspol meet at headquarters of OSCE Mission in Moldovan capital

Chisinau, 14 March /MOLDPRES/ - The political representatives on behalf of Chisinau and Tiraspol, Gheorghe Balan and Vitaly Ignatyev, respectively, today met at the Chisinau-based headquarters of the OSCE Mission.

The sides discussed more subjects on the agenda of the relations between the two banks of Dniester. In particular, it is about the movement of vehicles, trains and the work of the Latin-script schools from the region. “We have not received answers and assurances on the change of Tiraspol’s stance on these subjects. We discussed also the boosting of the activity of the working groups on the trains’ movement and the telecommunications sector. Also, we discussed the joint control at the Kuchurgan checkpoint; we noted that this subject regards the Moldovan-Ukrainian bilateral relations and does not lead to the worsening of the situation for the economic agents or the residents from the left bank of Dniester. This regulation can affect only the people dealing with the contraband, trafficking or other illegal schemes. Starting from 2015, including with the invitation to participate in discussions with the Ukrainian side within the Moldovan delegation, the Transnistrian side has not answered in any way, and statements are presently made alleging that this joint control would worsen the conflict settlement process, which misleads the society, as the initiative provides for the simplification of all procedures and improvement of the services,” Gheorghe Balan said.   

For his part, the political representative on behalf of Tiraspol, Vitaly Ignatyev, said that the initiative on the creation of a joint checkpoint would be a destructive one. “Today, I called on the participants in the meeting to refuse the implementation of this initiative, which may lead to diverse economic problems and can affect the free movement both of persons and transport means. At the same time, the joint control can influence the security, as the situation will appear when the two sides will be in the immediate neighbourhood. This fact is not regulated in any way. From the western side, there is security zone and concrete mechanisms of solving the problems, while from the Ukrainian side, we may face the situation when Moldovan and Transnistrian servicemen will be one in front of the other. Here, there is no mechanism of regulating the escalation of tensions. Thus, the establishment of the joint control represents a major risk,” Ignatyev said.      

Presently, there are four joint checkpoints at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border: Briceni-Rososeni, Criva-Mamaliga, Larga-Chelmenti and Giurgiulesti-Reni.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor A. Raileanu)