The activity of the Public Expert Council was resumed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR under participation of representatives of government, academic and business community, representatives of civil society. The discussion within the Council was focused on the development of a common understanding relating to the strategy of the Eurasian integration of Pridnestrovie.
Opening the meeting Nina Shtanski, Deputy Chairperson of the Government of the PMR, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, thanked the experts for their active support while developing a new edition of the Foreign Policy Concept of the PMR. She emphasized that this document was highly estimated by the Russian Foreign Ministry and was examined in Russian scientific centres. The expert community of Pridnestrovie has shown great potential in settling issues facing the state. Today the MFA requests again the assistance of experts to work out the details for implementation of the strategic development of the state. “The work that we have performed at that time was a kind of test to check fruitfulness of our cooperation. And I think that we have withstood this test with dignity,” said the Head of the Pridnestrovian diplomacy.
According to the Foreign Ministry, integration of Pridnestrovie into Eurasian agencies shall be the most topical field of work this year. But this area can be implemented by strengthening efforts of the whole Pridnestrovian society; it is also necessary to involve civil agencies of the Customs Union participating states, Ukraine and Moldova in active cooperation.
Public information activity shall forestall the work in the economic and political areas within the course of Pridnestrovie to the Eurasian integration. But this direction shouldn't be the key point. Search for paths of economic interaction between Pridnestrovie and countries within the Eurasia should form the core of the initial expert work. In this regard Pridnestrovian MFA presented project of a non-commercial organization “Eurasian Region Pridnestrovie”. As it was noted during presentation, “Eurasian Region Pridnestrovie” shall be a trans-geographical innovative formation based on cultural, linguistic and historical unity, industrial cooperation, technological and economic community of its constituent economic territories. Collaterality of the geographical factor as a traditional locomotive for unification processes forms a significant difference between the emerging structure and actual public and internal integration projects. Nina Shtanski noted that the Eurasian aspirations of Pridnestrovie were supported by Russian colleagues. “High estimation of our projects being implemented here, in Pridnestrovie, given by representatives of Russian government lends evidence,” the Minister said.
It was noted during the meeting that the process of Eurasian integration of Pridnestrovie could be successful in the case of high-quality and powerful information support. To this end, relative media project should be launched within “Eurasian Region Pridnestrovie”. The discussion of experts was focused on details of informational work and the expected results. “The task of a media project shall be not so much connected with awareness of the population within the country as with effective engagement of civil society in Pridnestrovie, Russia, Moldova and Ukraine. We must also show our road map to international partners,” Nina Shtanski explained. The Minister expressed confidence that the expert assistance will allow achieving good results during implementation of the Eurasian course of Pridnestrovie.
Commenting on the results of the meeting of the Public Expert Council, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pridnestrovie Igor Shornikov noted that the concept of the “Eurasian Region Pridnestrovie” was supported by experts. In the near future the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will organize subject meetings where experts will be able to offer their ideas and outputs. Sergey Shirokov, Head of the Bureau of Political Studies “Mediator” said that the expert community will make every effort to assist in the implementation of the strategic direction of the Republic which is based on the will of Pridnestrovians expressed at the referendum in 2006. “Today we agreed to continue our work in details within economic and socio-humanitarian sections. We hope that this work will allow us to find the conceptual mechanisms for integration mechanisms,” said Sergey Shirokov. Nikolay Uzun, Professor of the Department for Economic Theory and the World Economy at the T. Shevchenko Pridnestrovian State University stressed also that the project presented at the meeting has great potential. “I think that the project will be high-efficient. The first step can lead to very good results,” Nikolay Uzun concluded.
The next meeting of the Public Expert Council under the PMR's MFA is planned for March a. c.
