Tiraspol, 21 March. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. A dialogue between Moldova and Pridnestrovie has been maintained at the working level, the acting foreign minister of the PMR said in an interview with TASS, adding that the last talks in the extended format (5+2), i.e. including conflict sides, mediators and observers, took place in June 2014.
«Since then a dialogue between Tiraspol and Kishinev has been maintained at the working level only, chiefly within the framework of expert groups, which designed to discuss and search for solutions to concrete socio-economic problems in the conflict zone," noted Ignatyev.
According to the minister, Moldova has minimised even these contacts. «Thus, this year Moldova has agreed to hold only two out of 11 meetings of industry experts. At the same time, only in recent months Pridnestroive has worked out a whole range of integrated projects aimed to settle complicated problems, including in the sphere of railway and motor transportation and mutual recognition of issued documents," TASS cites the diplomat as saying.
On the whole, according to the information voiced by Ignatyev, since 2012 the Pridnestrovian side has submitted over 50 proposals to the negotiating table aimed to solve deep-rooted socio-economic contradictions.
«Unfortunately, today the Republic of Moldova is continuing to deviate form a dialogue with Pridnestrovie, despite public statements about the need to intensify work at all negotiation platforms. In fact, we can see the undisguised sabotage by Moldovan representatives of the process of constructive cooperation with Pridnestrovie," the minister commented on the situation.
«Pridnestovie's initiatives, espoused by all 5+2 format participants and officially sent out to Moldovan representatives, have remained unanswered on various pretexts for many months," he added.
According to the foreign minister, this tactics significantly undermines the international community's efforts in the process of the Moldo-Pridnestrovian settlement and brings into question the efficiency of the scheduled visit of mediators and observers to Pridnestrovie and Moldova, by the time of which the sides are supposed to prepare draft solutions to a whole number of issues.
Meanwhile, according to him, the main obstacle to the resumption of the full format negotiations (5+2) — about 200 criminal cases launched by the Moldovan authorities against Pridnestrovie's officials and businesspersons — has not been eliminated so far.
«Kishinev's reluctance to take concrete actions to solve this long-standing but very sensitive problem keeps the wall erected by Moldova in the negotiation process intact. This deliberately destructive approach tramples on the principles and procedures of the international negotiation process, destroys the very content of the settlement process, making a political dialogue impossible. It is evident when one negotiation side is 'hand-cuffed', it looks more like third degree interrogation than negotiations," concluded the diplomat.
