Tiraspol, 9 December. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Yesterday, 8 December, during a working visit to Moscow the acting foreign minister of the PMR, Vitaly Ignatyev, held a number of meetings with Russian officials.
Pridnesrtrovie's foreign minister met the aide to the Russian president on regional economic integration, Sergey Glazyev. The meeting was also attended by Dmitry Loskutov, an aide to Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin, and Russia's MFA ambassador at large Sergey Gubarev.
The dialogue focused on socio-economic issues. Vitaly Ignatyev briefed the Russian president's aide on some aspects of a free trade agreement permitting Pridnestrovian economic agents to export their products to the EU market. The partners also exchanged opinions on the prospects and trends of Pridnestrovie's tax system modernisation.
Vitaly Ignatyev expressed concern over Moldova and Ukraine's plans to block Pridnestrovie’s foreign economic activities by establishing joint customs and border checkpoints near the Pridnestrovian border. The diplomat informed the Russian officials about possible negative implications of this unilateral measure in such spheres as trade and economy, freedom of movement for citizens and vehicles, regional security.
According to the MFA press office, the partners also discussed a number of promising trends in the Russian-Pridnestrovian economic cooperation.
During the visit to Russia's MFA, Vitaly Ignatyev met ambassador at large Sergey Gubarev and the deputy director of the second CIS department of the MFA, Vitaly Tryapitsyn. The sides discussed the current situation in the negotiations between Pridnestrovie.
In the course of the dialogue Vitaly Ignatyev drew attention to Moldovan officials' ongoing attempts to evade the meetings of chief negotiators and expert (working) groups. He noted that the Moldovan side unreasonably impeded the work of expert (working) groups in such sensitive spheres as the termination of politically motivated criminal cases, railway communication, education, citizens' legal and documentation support. The parties also exchanged views on further prospects of the 5+2 format.
Special attention was given to the establishment of the joint Moldo-Ukrainian checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Pridnestrovian border, which is scheduled for 2016. It was emphasised that this unilateral action was very destructive for the region and its implementation could undermine the negotiation structure and lead the political dialogue on the Pridnestrovian settlement to an impasse. Vitaly Ignatyev called on the Russian side to use all possible tools of a guarantor state within the negotiation process and assist in preventing this Moldo-Ukrainian initiative.
