10 years ago, on April 9, 2001, Presidents of Moldova and Pridnestrovie, Vladimir Voronin and Igor Smirnov, signed Joint Statement which contained a whole number of fundamentally important provisions as regards the Moldova-Pridnestrovie relations normalization, and which among other issues stated the equality of the sides in the negotiation process, intention of the sides to consider issue of joining the Union of Belarus and Russia, as well as granting Russian official-language status and stepping-up interdepartmental work.