Tiraspol initiates another 5+2 meeting on Transdniestrian conflict settlement
TIRASPOL. Sept 27 (Interfax) - The Moldovan Republic of Transdniestria has proposed holding yet another "five plus two" meeting in the very near future, the foreign minister of the breakaway republic, Vitaly Ignatyev, told journalists after meeting with Cord Meier-Klodt, Special Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
"We are seeing it [the meeting] as an urgent need. The Berlin protocol that we signed at the beginning of June has not been implemented. We need to monitor and analyze the current situation and set parameters for resolving the problems under which we have already put our signatures, and determine, among other things, the temporal parameters: when these decisions will be reached," Ignatyev said.
At the meeting, Transdniestria also delivered its proposals on a new agreement to resume freight train service across Transdniestria, since the previous version of the document will expire by the end of 2016, Ignatyev said.
"Transdniestria drew up a new draft of the agreement, with annexes and technological drawings containing detailed descriptions of the import of goods addressed to economic agents in Transdniestria, which would not be subject to customs control in Moldova; and also describing the transit, export and formula for customs control at our joint posts," the Transdniestrian foreign minister said.
He handed over this package of documents to Meier-Klodt who will pass it on to Moldova and all parties to the negotiating process, he said.
Also on Tuesday the president of Transdniestria, Yevgeny Shevchuk, met with U.S. Ambassador to Moldova James Pettit. The parties discussed the current situation in the relations between Tiraspol and Chisinau, the Transdniestrian leader's press office said.
Shevchuk also raised a particular concern about the blocking by Chisinau and Kyiv of the goods being shipped to Transdniestria by rail.
The previous round of five plus two talks, involving Transdniestria and Moldova as parties to the talks; Russia, the OSCE and Ukraine as mediators; and the European Union and the United States as observers, took place in Berlin on June 2-3, 2016, after a two-year break.
The Berlin meeting resulted in the signing of a protocol outlining ways to resolve problems between Tiraspol and Chisinau such as train services, driving with Transdniestrian license plates abroad, and recognizing diplomas of education.