Another 5+2 round of Transdniestria talks to be held in Vienna on Feb 27-28
CHISINAU. Feb 26 (Interfax) - The first round of negotiations in 2014 on the Transdniestria settlement in a 5+2 format will take place in Vienna on February 27-28, the OSCE Mission in Chisinau said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The two-day meeting will bring together representatives of the sides, mediators and observers in the negotiations - Moldova, Transdniestria, the OSCE, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU," the statement says.
The negotiations will be chaired by Ambassador Radojko Bogojevic, the Special Representative of the Swiss OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian Settlement Process.
The upcoming round of negotiations will be the first since Serbia and Switzerland jointly took over the OSCE chairmanship. It was originally announced when Ukraine completed its OSCE chairmanship term at the end of 2013 that the negotiation round would take place in Chisinau and Tiraspol in February. However, during Bogojevic's first familiarizing visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol, the parties agreed to hold the talks in Vienna.
No reasons for transferring the negotiations to Vienna have been announced. Experts attribute this to a new rift between Chisinau and Tiraspol, which has been worsening since the end of 2013. This was caused by Tiraspol's pressure on Moldovan schools using the Latin alphabet in Transdniestria and the Moldovan parliament's decision to impose excise duties on Transdniestrian economic agents importing goods for technological needs.
The negotiations were on the verge of cancellation. However, it was decided last week to hold the round, after the Moldovan authorities announced the lifting of the excise duties for Transdniestrian enterprises within a month. Nevertheless, the talks would be held without an agenda endorsed beforehand, which, in analysts' view, makes it problematic to achieve tangible results in Vienna.
