All news

OSCE envoy to visit Chisinau, Tiraspol ahead of new round of Transnistria talks

Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

KIEV, July 10 (Itar-Tass) - Special envoy of the OSCE chairperson-in-office on protracted conflicts Andrei Deshchitsa will begin the preparations to a next round of the negotiations over the Transnistrian problem. Within two days Deshchitsa will visit Moldova and Transnistria to discuss the issues related with the next round of negotiations. Representatives of Moldova, Transdniestria, OSCE, Ukraine and Russia will meet with observers from the European Union and the United States in a 5+2 format. This said the Deputy Director of the department of information policy of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Vasil Zvarych to Itar-Tass.

This will be already the third round of the negotiations during Ukraine’s presidency in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The parties will hold negotiations in Vienna on July 16-17.

“During a visit to Moldova and Transnistria Andrei Deshchitsa will meet with the officials of Chisinau and Tiraspol, discuss the agenda of the forthcoming negotiations and the opportunity to hold them in a constructive way,” the Ukrainian diplomatic official said. He recalled that high on the agenda of negotiations are three groups of issues. These are socio-economic problems, humanitarian issues and human rights, as well as the problem of comprehensive settlement. “The first and second groups of questions will be in priority. In particular, the negotiators will discuss the situation in the banking sector, telecommunications and economy in general. They will continue the work over a protocol decision on the freedom of movement and resume the debates over the agreement, which was reached at the previous meeting over a ropeway across the Dniester River.

The question to dismantle the ropeway between the cities Rybnitsa and Rezina was discussed at a meeting in Odessa in June. The cableway was used before for the delivery of the raw materials for a concrete-making plant, but has been idle already for many years, went out of order and poses a threat to the safety of people. Ukrainian Foreign Minister, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Leonid Kozhara took the settlement of this problem as “the proof of the ability of the negotiating parties to come to terms” and urged Chisinau and Tiraspol to maintain a constructive dialogue.