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Participants in 5+2 consultations agree to resume official talks – FM

The Transdniester settlement talks in the "5 + 2" format were broken at the end of February 2006

MOSCOW, September 22 (Itar-Tass) — Participants in the 5+2 consultations on the Transdniester settlement agreed to resume official talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

Commenting on the Moscow meeting at the level of political representatives, the ministry said the parties had agreed to resume official talks.

The participants in the consultations also coordinated a statement saying, “The next ‘permanent conference’ will be devoted to principles and the agenda of official talks,” the ministry said.

The Transdniester settlement talks in the "5 + 2" format were broken at the end of February 2006.

Chisinau and Tiraspol managed to resume the dialogue with Russia's assistance two years later. As a result, the heads of Moldova and Transdniester, Vladimir Voronin and Igor Smirnov, met in the town of Bendery on April 11, 2008 for the first time over the past seven years. Back then, they agreed to restart regular contacts and thus resume the Dniester conflict settlement negotiations.

New steps for the reconciliation the positions of Tiraspol and Chisinau were taken after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's separate talks with Voronin and Smirnov in August and September 2008.

At the end of December 2008, the Moldovan president and Tiraspol leader managed to meet again. In the course of the meeting, Voronin presented a package of proposals on the Dniester settlement, and suggested they begin to discuss them in the "5 + 2" format.

New steps for the reconciliation the positions of Tiraspol and Chisinau were taken after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's separate talks with Voronin and Smirnov in August and September 2008.

At the end of December 2008, the Moldovan president and Tiraspol leader managed to meet again. In the course of the meeting, Voronin presented a package of proposals on the Transdniester settlement, and suggested they begin to discuss them in the "5 + 2" format.

"The position of the Dniester region in the solution of the Transdniester region problem remains unchanged, based upon the will of the people expressed at the referendum," Smirnov said. The Transdniester region negotiates with Moldova only because it "strives to keep peace and economic stability."

Back then, Voronin and Smirnov decided to meet again in March 2009.

Voronin repeats that the Dniester settlement talks must be held exclusively in the "5 + 2" format, because it gives "an international guarantee that the Dniester status, which will be defined during the talks, will be implemented" and, furthermore, will be viable in the future.

According to him, "the Transdniester settlement negotiations reached a serious progress for the past eight years of my presidency."

At the same time, Smirnov stated that the Transdniester Republic would strive for direct talks with Moldova with a mediation of Russia. He expressed disagreement with the official stance of the Moldovan leadership. "We think that the '5 + 2' format is only a consultative one. We speak in favour of an equal dialogue with Moldova with the Russian mediation," Smirnov said.

Tiraspol disagrees with the autonomy status proposed by Moldova, Transdniester statesmen said, recalling that the idea to unite with Moldova was not supported by the Dniester residents, which was confirmed during the referendum of September 2006. Back then, 97 percent of those polled spoke in favour of the unrecognised republic's independence and its further free joining to Russia.

During the March 2009 meeting, the sides signed their first over the recent seven years joint document - a declaration.

The Transdniester Republic is formally a part of Moldova that has a predominantly non-Moldovan population and that has been seeking independence for itself since the very beginning of the 1990's. The standoff between the breakaway territory and Moldova's central government escalated into a bloody armed conflict in 1992 where thousands of people lost lives or were severely wounded.