A meeting of Acting Foreign Minister of the PMR Vitaly Ignatiev with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Sweden to the Republic of Moldova Signe Burgstaller took place in the PMR’s Foreign Ministry. On September 23, 2015 the Swedish diplomat succeeded Ms. Ingrid Tersman, and today she made her first visit to Pridnestrovie.
Welcoming the guest, Vitaly Ignatyev celebrated Signe Burgstaller on her appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and expressed confidence that the bilateral relations between Pridnestrovie and Sweden would continue to develop in the spirit of openness and mutual understanding.
“For the recent years we have established active cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden in the social and humanitarian sphere, jointly organized a series of cultural events, exhibitions, Swedish film festivals. I suppose filling these areas of cooperation with new content, maintaining the high dynamics of the contacts represent mutual interest,” - said the head of the Foreign Ministry.
During the meeting Signe Burgstaller was interested in the current state of the Moldovan-Pridnestrovian relations and prospects of development of Pridnestrovie and Moldova dialogue in the negotiation process. In this context, Vitaly Ignatiev said that the functionality of the existing negotiating platforms was significantly weakened due to a number of unilateral restrictive measures applied by Moldova against Pridnestrovie. In particular, the diplomat drew the Swedish side’s attention to the problem of politically motivated prosecution in the RM officials and entrepreneurs of Pridnestrovie for over one and a half year, preventing the resumption of official meetings in the “5+2” format. According to the head of the MFA the PMR, “to conduct a dialogue in handcuffs” is not possible.
Vitaly Ignatyev also said during the meeting that another discriminatory step taken against Pridnestrovie by the neighbouring countries was Moldova and Ukraine’s signing of the Protocol on the joint customs and border control on the Ukrainian-Pridnestrovian state border at the checkpoint “Kuchurgan”. The diplomat stressed that the practical implementation of this agreement would result in a triple customs and border control for the economic agents of Pridnestrovie, it was aimed at establishing complete control over export-import operations of the republic and organization of a full-scale economic blockade of the PMR. According to the head of the Foreign Ministry, such decision being contrary to the fundamentals of the negotiation process, obviously, will have a negative impact on its prospects.
The sides agreed to continue constructive interaction on topical issues on the agenda.
