VIENNA, June 29. /TASS/. To settle the Trans-Dniester conflict it is necessary to "unfreeze" the settlement process and make the agreements reached on the issue legally binding, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador at Large, Russia’s representative at the negotiations on the Trans-Dniester settlement Sergey Gubarev told TASS on Wednesday.
He takes part with the Russian delegation in the Austrian capital in the Annual Security Review Conference (ASRC) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and addressed a session on the "frozen conflicts" in the OSCE space.
It is necessary to "unfreeze" settlement process
"The session on conflict situations in the OSCE space is very useful, because it provides a possibility to consider and analyze the situation and, in spite of the polarity of interests of the sides of conflicts, to get closer to the understanding on how to proceed," he said. "The Trans-Dniester conflict is perhaps the most illustrative in this situation. As representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Cord Meier-Klodt correctly said, in the situation of the Trans-Dniester conflict it is necessary to talk not about the "frozen conflict", but about the "frozen settlement process." This is a very interesting idea and, in my opinion, it is absolutely correct, because there is no conflict as such in our understanding."
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"The abnormal situation in which the parties have no contact, take no steps to address the urgent problems is ending," Gubarev said. "My position in life is that 10 years of negotiations are better than one day of war, so I am pleased to state that thanks to the efforts of Russia, above all, and, of course, thanks to the German OSCE chairmanship, the official "5+2 format of meetings, which, in addition to the parties to the conflict - Moldova and Trans-Dniester Republic, includes Russia and Ukraine as mediators and guarantors of the settlement, another mediator represented by the OSCE and two observers - the United States and the European Union, has been restored. We very much we hope that the rhythmic work of the format will be restored."