On February 9, the meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and President of Pridnestrovie Igor Smirnov took place in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The meeting was also attended by Pridnestrovian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Yastrebchak.
According to the Information and Press Department of the Russian MFA, the Russian side confirmed that all mediatory efforts undertaken by Russia as a guarantor country of the results of Pridnestrovian conflict settlement are based on the norms of international law, as well as on the principles for the settlement of regional conflicts, worked out by the OSCE. A guarantee for successful advance in elaborating a viable variant of the conflict solution in the interests of the population on both sides of the Dniester is equal dialogue and conjoint searches for compromises. In this context, the Joint Statement of the leaders of the sides to the conflict and the Russian President, signed in Moscow on March 18, 2009, retains its constructive potential and enables it to look to solution of all disputed issues by peaceful political means only.
The Pridnestrovian side informed of its vision of the current situation in the region, as well as of the recent contacts of political representatives of Chisinau and Tiraspol with the participation of the heads of expert groups on confidence-building measures on the Dniester in the social and economic sphere.
