CHISINAU, June 24. /TASS/. Moldova and Transdniestria have reiterated their readiness to implement the agreements reached at the Berlin talks in the 5+2 format on June 3, Cord Meier-Klodt, Special Representative for the Transdniestrian Settlement Process of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said on Friday after talks with Moldova’s Prime Minister Pavel Filip, speaker of the Moldovan parliament Andrian Candu, President of the non-recognized Transdniestrian Republic Yevgeny Shevchuk and speaker of Transdniestria’s parliament Vadim Krasnoselsky.
He said that one of the provisions of the Berlin protocol, that on cooperation in the area of meteorology and environment protection in the River Dniester basin, has already been implemented.
Apart from that, the sides are yet to settle the problems of criminal prosecution of officials, recognition of Transdniestria’s diplomas and car license plates and to establish cooperation in the areas of telecommunications, as provided by the Berlin document.
The OSCE representative noted that the sides have stepped up talks in the recent time and noted that he believes there is a real chance to remove a number of obstacles hindering people living on both banks of the River Dniester.
Talks in the 5+2 format, involving Moldova and Transdniestria as parties to the conflict, the OSCE as a mediator, Russia and Ukraine as guarantors and the European Union and the United States as observers, resumed last week in Berlin after a two-year break. Relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol chilled after the Transdniestrial leader accused Moldova and Ukraine of exerting coordinated pressure on the unrecognized republic through economic sanctions. Tiraspol accused the Moldovan authorities of opening about 200 criminal cases against Transdniestrian officials. Observers say it has become possible to resume the talks thanks to Russia’s and Germany’s mediation.
A traditional Bavarian conference on trust-building measures between Chisinau and Tiraspol is to be held in July. It is an unofficial annual meeting held near Munich since 2009. The sides are expected to outline coordinated solutions from the Berlin package.
Transdniestria, a largely Russian-speaking region, broke away from Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Its relations with Moldova’s central government in Chisinau have been highly mixed and extremely tense at times ever since then. In 1992 and 1993, tensions erupted into a bloody armed conflict that claimed the lives of hundreds of people on both sides.