Tiraspol, 24 May. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Preisdent Yevgeny Shevchuk met the acting foreign minister, Vitaly Ignatyev. The chief diplomat briefed the head of state on the current activities of Moldovan and Pridnestrovian expert working groups.
As the minister noted, the Pridnestrovian side has put forward an initiative to involve political representatives to expert group meetings to give an additional impetus to the dialogue.
«Unfortunately, the dynamics is low, and the substantive part leaves much to be desired. And the scope of problems is still very broad. This includes railway and motor transport, politically motivated criminal cases," said the diplomat.
According to Vitaly Ignatyev, the possibility of apostilling diplomas issued by Shevchenko Pridnestrovian State University has been recently emphasised during negotiations.
«Solving this problem will allow our graduates both to get further education at the next level, including in EU countries, and to get employment based on these documents," said Vitaly Ignatyev. «We have decided upon the idea of a neutral diploma. The Pridnestrovian approaches are based on recommendations given by EU experts in 2014. Unfortunately, since then our Moldovan partners have not shown interest in this issue," said Vitaly Ignatyev.
As the foreign minister noted, the Pridnestrovian side expresses hope that the current surge of interest in Pridnestrovian graduates receiving internationally recognised documents will translate into concrete results.
Prospects for holding a 5+2 format meeting were also talked about at the meeting. Such a proposal had been earlier made by the German OSCE chairmanship. Today the agenda of this meeting is being discussed.
«It is too premature to speak about some specific results achieved by experts or solution drafts which could be placed on the negotiating table. We highly appreciate the potential of Russia's 'non-paper' proposals which has met with support from OSCE representatives," said the minister.
Among the issues outlined in the Russian proposals are the introduction of a moratorium by Moldova on the institution of politically motivated criminal cases, the elaboration of guarantee mechanisms which would ensure the implementation of decisions made at the level of a political negotiation process, the rejection of any unilateral activities and pressure on negotiation participants, some freedom of movement aspects.
«The concept Pridnestrovie adheres to is that the 5+2 format meetings must be efficient. To achieve this, it is necessary to work out draft solutions to the existing problem issues," noted the president. Yevgeny Shevchuk highlighted the importance of seeking mutually beneficial and acceptable solutions at the negotiating table.
