TIRASPOL, February 12 (Itar-Tass) – Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat and President of the Dniester Republic Yevgeny Shevchuk will not meet in Lvov, since there are no coordinated documents to sign, Nina Stanski, the foreign minister of the unrecognized republic, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
“During the visit to Moldova and to the Dniester Republic in January Leonid Kozhara, the OSCE chairman-in-office and Ukrainian foreign minister, suggested that the Moldovan premier and the president of the Dniester Republic meet in Lvov on February 18-19 on the sidelines of the session of the Permanent Conference on Political Issues in the Framework of the Negotiating Process for the Dniester Settlement,” Stanski said.
“In the opinion of the Ukrainian side, such a meeting could become an important precondition for continuing the course of Tiraspol and Chisinau toward the solution of the existing problems, first of all, in the social and economic area. The president of the Dniester Republic expressed the principled readiness for such a meeting if it is thoroughly prepared and offers an opportunity to make specific arrangements in the social and economic area. But the meeting of the leaders of Moldova and the Dniester Republic in Lvov proposed by the Ukrainian side will not take place, since there are no coordinated documents to sign,” Stanski said.
She said that in the run up to the talks in Lvov the sides were discussing the draft arrangements on priority measures for the freedom of travel of population on both banks of the Dniester, specific proposals for the restoration of river shipping and civil aviation flights, and other documents.
“However, during the consultations at the level of experts and political representatives, when the working out of the final variants of the documents for Shevchuk and Filat to sign was almost completed, the Moldovan side changed its position on a number of issues earlier coordinated. What is more, our colleagues made new proposals on the essence of the protocol decision that cardinally changed the essence of the earlier coordinated provisions. This inconsistent approach has caused our concern,” Stanski said. She said diplomats of the Dniester Republic intended to continue exerting efforts in the quest for a compromise on various issues of social and economic interaction.
The talks in the five plus two format (Moldova, Dniester Republic, OSCE, Russia, Ukraine and EU and US as the observer sides) are due in Lvov on February 18-19. Chisinau insists that the political status of the Dniester region be put on the agenda of the talks. Moldovan Deputy Premier Eugen Carpov who represents Moldova at the talks, set out this stand at the recent meeting with Stanski. “On the one hand, we recognize the importance of discussing social and economic problems. One the other, progress in these matters is often blocked or becomes impossible precisely for the lack of political vision of the settlement of the Dniester conflict,” Carpov said. On his part, the head of the Dniester region Shevchuk holds that “preconditions for the discussion of political issues have not yet been created.”