Today, a traditional briefing for Transdniestrian and Russian journalists devoted to foreign policy results of september took place in the Transdniestrian Foreign Ministry.
Transdniestrian Foreign Minister Vladimir Yastrebchak specially emphasized Kiev's appointment of Igor Kharchenko as a new Special Representative of Ukraine for Transdniestrian settlement. In the words of Vladimir Yastrebchak, Igor Kharchenko is “an experienced and qualified diplomat who has a good command of situation in Moldova-Pridnestrovie settlement and in the region on the whole.” In particular, Igor Kharchenko is one of the founders of the Bratislava format, known as Permanent Consultations on Political Issues in the Framework of the Transdniestrian Settlement Negotiation Process (Moldova, Transdniestria, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE). Apart from that, he was Ukraine's Ambassador in Romania, Poland and Great Britain, held the position of deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine. As Vladimir Yastrebchak told, the post of Special Representative being now occupied should benefit the evolvement of Transdniestria-Ukraine cooperation.
The head of the Transdniestrian diplomacy highly estimated the visit to South Ossetia of the Transdniestrian delegation headed by Chair of the PMR's Supreme Soviet Anatoly Kaminsky to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Republic of South Ossetia. During the visit capsule was laid in the foundation of the future building of the Transdniestrian Embassy in South Ossetia. Vladimir Yastrebchak said the site where the construction of the Embassy would take place had already been chosen, the basic organizational and legal moments of this issue had already been settled; so, modern building of the Transdniestrian representation mission fitting the up-to-date requirements will soon appear in Tskhinvali.
The previous week Transdniestria saw the visit of the delegation of mediators and observers which met with the PMR's leadership and heads of expert groups. The same visit had been paid to Chisinau. “It's significant that after the meetings in Chisinau and Tiraspol our mediators – first of all representatives of the RF and Ukraine – stated there were quite many disagreements between what they heard in Chisinau and in Tiraspol. As a result, a number of new questions appeared,” told Vladimir Yastrebchak. In his words, “proceeding from these circumstances the Russian and Ukrainian side came forward with an initiative which was supported by the Transdniestrian side suggesting that mediators and observers should talk to the heads of Moldovan and Transdniestrian working and expert groups during the next meetings and in an open dialogue listen to their arguments and look into those contradictions which were outlined in the course of the previous meetings.”
As to the possibility of parallel solution of practical issues within working and expert groups of Moldova and Transdniestria and the issue regarding the Transdniestrian status at the level of political representatives of the sides – and this was supported by both Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-office Bolat Nurgaliev and Ambassador-at-large of the Russian MFA Sergey Gubarev, Vladimir Yastrebchak marked that this perspective is so far unlikely. He mentioned that “status” problems emerge this way or another in the work of expert groups and appear to be an obstacle for them. “But if the sides proceeded from the equality of the subjects, primarily at the level of experts, no matter what line of work, whether economy or health care, then issues regarding status could be removed,” told the Minister. “As for the problem of status in general, it's clear and everyone admits directly or implicitly that currently there are no prerequisites for conducting dialogue on this or that status of Transdniestria. What we have is polar positions of the sides, and there is no perspective for them to be somehow changed,” stressed the Minister.
