Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic

04/21/17

The foreign ministry of Pridnestrovie has repeatedly stated at the international level that it is inadmissible to establish joint customs-border control of Moldova and Ukraine on the Pridnestrovian-Ukrainian state border. Under the conditions of the unresolved conflict between Pridnestrovie and Moldova, such unilateral destructive actions are a form of pressure on the Pridnestrovian side.

Meanwhile, Pridnestrovie expresses its constant readiness to negotiations with the participation of all interested parties in the atmosphere of open and substantive dialogue to determine a reasonable and viable mechanism for cross-border cooperation.

Guided by this open approach, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent invitations to the heads of 23 accredited diplomatic missions in Moldova to arrive in Tiraspol on April 21, 2017 to discuss the whole complex of problematic issues, as well as possible ways to escape the emerging crisis situation in the format of an informal working meeting.

In this regard we accepted with extreme bafflement the refusal of all diplomatic missions to arrive in Pridnestrovie or to delegate their representatives to the event motivated by various pretexts, with the exception of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Moldova.

We regard this gesture of international participants as a demonstrative apathy to hear the position of Pridnestrovie, which shows that there is no real willingness to discuss the problems of joint control even at the technical level. It is noteworthy that several international partners have repeatedly called for informal discussions, especially representatives of the European Union.

In this context the refusal to participate in the event in Tiraspol is a confirmation of insincere approaches and deliberate evasion of open discussions in order to avoid any form of substantive discussion on the problem of joint Moldovan-Ukrainian control at the border with Pridnestrovie both on the informal level and on the level of official meetings at the “Permanent Conference...”.

Taking such a position, some international participants in the negotiation process are responsible for the projected negative consequences from the implementation of this destructive measure.