Tiraspol, 10 October. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR Vitaly Ignatyev has met today Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Cord Meier-Klodt. The sides discussed the execution of the Berlin Protocol, signed this summer, as well as the overall situation in negotiations at various levels.
According to the German diplomat, signing a substantive document following the 5+2 format meeting containing the specific issues on which Moldova and Pridnestrovie had to elaborate agreements, as well as setting a time frame within which that it had to been fulfilled, was a positive step, but for the most part the protocol has not been executed.
«We have not achieved all that [which was set forth in the Protocol] and within the time frame we set," he said, commenting on the meeting results.
Vitaly Ignatiev, in turn, also noted that the period after the signing of the Berlin Protocol had seen the degradation of the positive movement in the negotiations. «The intensity of meeting has fallen significantly at all levels, and unfortunately, a whole set of additional problems has arisen. The railway issue has emerged full blown, and the other issues that we included in the Berlin Protocol have remained unsettled as well. Recently we have come across additional problems relating to freedom of movement," the Pridnestrovian diplomat told journalists.
As we have informed, Pridnestrovie has submitted draft solutions to a whole range of acute issues at the level of expert working groups, but the measures stipulated in the Berlin Protocol have been actually blocked by the Moldovan side.
However, the German chairmanship's position remains the same — reaching agreement on all issues solely depends on the negotiation sides, according to Cord Maier-Klodt. Also, the special representative did not specify a date for a new round of the 5+2 format negotiations. According to him, the sides and mediators should elaborate the substantive content of its agenda. «A meeting may occur this year if there are substantive items on the agenda… We must not hold meetings for the sake of meetings," said Cord Maier-Klodt.
The position of Pridnestrovie, in the meantime, is that a meeting in the 5+2 format may give a positive impetus to the negotiations — the Pridnestrovian side have repeatedly proposed to initiate a new meeting of the «Permanent Conference on political issues…» (5+2 format), including during Maier-Klodt's last visit to the country that took place on 27 September.
The foreign ministry also wants to discuss in this format, among other issues, the withdrawal of the railway blockade from Pridnestrovie. The Pridnestrovian side has already developed a draft of and a technological scheme to a new agreement on railway freight and submitted it to the OSCE chairmanship-in-office. Despite this, no substantive proposal on the draft document was voiced during today's meeting.
Photo by the MFA of the PMR.
