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Moldovan president pledges Transnistria will be reintegrated into Moldova in few years

CHISINAU, July 3. /TASS/. The Transnistrian conflict will be resolved in the next few years by means of reintegrating this unrecognized republic into Moldova, Moldovan President Igor Dodon said on Monday, commenting on Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky’s statement that there is no other option for Moldovan than to recognize his republic.

"We must reintegrate the country. And we will do that. I am confident it will be done in the next few years, regardless of what some leaders of Moldovan regions might say… No doubt, the country will reunite," he stressed.

He reminded that all countries, including the mediators in the 5+2 Transnistrian settlement talks, support Moldova’s territorial integrity. "Transnistria is part of Moldova, which is an integrated state. It is recognized by all," the Moldovan president said, adding that he is sure people living on the other bank of the Dniester also want reunification.

Earlier, Krasnoselsky told the First Transnistrian television channel the unrecognized republic has all the grounds to be recognized as it is an accomplished state. "I think the Moldovan president understands the Transnistria is to be recognized but cannot do that, cannot dare to do that," he said, adding he expects his Moldovan counterpart to give a political and legal assessment of the 1992 developments when an armed conflict between the two banks of the Dniester sparked out.

Transnistria, 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.

The fratricidal war was stopped after a peace agreement was signed in Moscow in 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict area. Negotiations on the conflict’s peaceful settlement known as the 5+2 format talks (involving Moldova and Transnistria as parties to the conflict, Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE as mediators and the United States and the European Union as observers) started after that.