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Moldova interested in invigorating Transnistrian settlement talks, says deputy PM

The Russian delegation is visiting the region to have talks both in Chisinau, Tiraspol ahead of another round of the Transnistrian settlement talks in the 5+2 format due to take place in early October

CHISINAU, September 17. /TASS/. Moldova is interested in resuming Transnistrian settlement talks in the 5+2 format, Moldova’s Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Vasile Sova said on Tuesday at a meeting with a visiting Russian delegation led by Ambassador at Large Sergei Gubarev.

"In 2020, major efforts will be focused on the resumption of discussions within the 5+2 format, both on institutional and political aspects. It is necessary to outline the settlement process prospects and agree a special model of Transnistria’s legal status based on the respect to Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders," the Moldovan government’s Bureau for Reintegration quoted him as saying.

According to the bureau, the sides exchanged ideas on how to reach "viable solutions" at the talks.

The Russian delegation is visiting the region to have talks both in Chisinau and Tiraspol ahead of another round of the Transnistrian settlement talks in the 5+2 format due to take place in Bratislava in early October.

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 peace settlement known as the 5+2 format talks involving Moldova and Transnistria as parties to the conflict, Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as mediators and the United States and the European Union as observers started after that.