OSCE wants to make Transdniestrian settlement more open - organization representative
CHISINAU. Jan 20 (Interfax) - Wolf Dietrich Heim, Special Representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office, expressed a "cautious optimism" regarding the process of the Transdniestrian settlement.
This year, Austria's presidency in OSCE will continue efforts taken during 2016 by Germany, and OSCE wants to make the Transdniestrian settlement process as open as possible, Heim said at a press conference following his three-day visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol on Friday. This creates confidence and allows hoping for a progress aimed at the achievement of results, he said.
He said that the Transdniestrian settlement is one of Austria's priorities during its presidency in OSCE.
Heim recalled that the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz paid visits to Moscow and Kyiv this week and will visit Chisinau and Tiraspol on February 3-4.
OSCE sees a constructive approach of the interested parties and the work on the agenda for the future meeting within the 5+2 format is currently underway. The agenda includes the issues of implementation of the Berlin protocol, as well as other ones that citizens living on two banks of the Dniester River face every day, he said.
He stood in favor of a continuation of the policy of small steps which includes a progression from resolving simple issues to more complex ones. The diplomat reiterated his "cautious optimism," expressing hope that it would be possible to achieve the Transdniesrian conflict resolution.
Interfax already reported that negotiations within the 5+2 format have not been held in two years and six months. In 2016, two informal meetings of participants in the process were held in Germany, but negotiations still did not resume.
A protocol consisting seven provisions was signed in Berlin in early June of 2016, following the implementation of which a decision to resume negotiations within the 5+2 format would be made. However, the protocol remained pending, which prevented to make the decision to resume full-scale negotiations.
