Today, on November 13, 2007, a meeting between representatives of the sides, mediators, and observers within the Permanent Conference on Political Issues in the Framework of the “5+2” Moldova-Pridnestrovie Settlement Negotiation Process should have taken place in Madrid. This forum had been disrupted unilaterally by Moldova on February 28, 2006.
Ever since, representatives of the guarantor countries and mediators – Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE, - as well as observers – EU and USA – have taken active efforts to resume the dialogue. To this end, during the past year, bipartite, tripartite, and five-sided meetings were held on the issue of restarting contacts between Chisinau and Tiraspol in the “5+2” format, including the visit to Moldova and Pridnestrovie by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, Miguel Angel Moratinos.
On October 31, 2007, the Pridnestrovien leadership received an invitation from the OSCE Spanish Chairmanship to take part in the meeting of representatives from the sides, mediators, and observers within the Permanent Conference on Political Issues in Madrid. On November 6, 2007, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic confirmed, in written form, its agreement to participate in the meeting.
The Moldovan leadership also stated its readiness to resume the consultations. But at the last moment, as the organizational matters of venue and time were being coordinated, the Moldovan delegation, in the person of Moldovan Minister of Reintegration Vasile Sova, refused to take part in the Madrid meeting. Official Chisinau once again demonstrated its adherence to “double standards” approaches to settlement of relations with Tiraspol: in word declaring one thing, but in deed practicing quite another.
The situation of breaking the Madrid meeting ranges among the refusal of the Moldovan president to sign the Kozak Memorandum. It demonstrates once again to the international community the real policy of the Moldovan authorities aimed at exerting pressure on Pridnestrovie, infringing on the rights of Pridnestrovien citizens, forcing Pridnestrovie to accept Chisinau's terms.
Undoubtedly, real steps of the Republic of Moldova – restrictions for Pridnestrovien vehicles, attempts to interfere with the constitutional rights of the Russian citizens, economic sanctions, and other counterproductive actions – prove inability of the Moldovan leadership to conduct a constructive dialogue on the settlement of relations between Moldova and Pridnestrovie.
Under the circumstances, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pridnestrovie expresses regret over the Moldovan side's position and believes that the breakdown of the Madrid meeting will have a negative effect on the prospects for Moldova-Pridnestrovie settlement. The PMR MFA once again draws attention of the international community to the refusal of the Republic of Moldova to engage in real work and reiterates the need to work out an effective international mechanism of guarantees against arbitrariness and failure of the Moldovan authorities to implement agreements in political, economic, and other areas. We are confident, that an active use of the potential of the bipartite cooperation of Pridnestrovie with the guarantor countries – Russia and Ukraine – as well as an adequate and tough assessment of actions of the Moldovan leadership, which blocks a final settlement of Moldova-Pridnestrovie relations, would play a major role in establishing such a mechanism.
