In Pridnestrovie attention was drawn to some statements as regards the Moldova-Pridnestrovie settlement made by Vice-President of the USA Joseph Biden during his short-term working visit in Chisinau on March 11, 2010. In this connection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR finds it necessary to mark a number of key moments which put in question the readiness of the United States to correspond to the status of impartial observer in the Moldova-Pridnestrovie relations normalization process.
Delivering his speech in Chisinau, Mr. Biden, in particular, stated that “the USA supports a settlement - not any settlement but a settlement that preserves Moldova\'s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Approach voiced by a high Washington representative contradicts the general position of Chisinau and Tiraspol, as well as of mediators and guarantors, which lies in the fact that the final formula of relations between Moldova and Pridnestrovie shall be defined by the sides to the conflict themselves.
The only one and preliminary specified variant of the settlement which the US representative is speaking about doesn't take into account the realities established over 20 years, and deprives the sides of the space for a quest of a compromise. Such approach can only aggravate the political process on the Dniester and gives ground to recall that negative role which Washington had already managed to play in the region. Tiraspol has a distinct memory of the fact how efforts in 2003, primarily of the USA, impeded the possibility of signing the plan of the Moldova-Pridnestrovie relations settlement known as the Kozak Memorandum. At that stage this document agreed by the sides could have opened up the possibilities for a real stabilization of the situation in this region of Europe. But it turned out that it contradicted the interests of the United States.
In Pridnestrovie attention was also paid to the categorical statement of Mr. Biden on the need “to resolve the conflict in the shortest time possible.” In fact, what is meant here is an attempt of the United States to ignore those problems which were created by the leadership of Moldova and which hinder the resumption of an equitable dialogue. Statements made by Mr. Biden show indifference towards people's lot, who suffer from these problems, and unwillingness to behold real reasons of the conflict.
The visit of the Vice-President to Moldova and a number of other European countries, as well as his statements are regarded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR as a continuation of the tendency defined in the report by American senator Richard Lugar and designed to break the dialogue on problems of the European security which was started in the framework of the recent initiatives of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Obviously, some politicians in the USA are not content with the balance of powers arising in the European space as a result of rapprochement between the RF and the EU, the weighty example of which became the formation of Lavrov-Ashton Committee. In fact, declarations of Mr. Biden are aimed to destabilize the Russian-European intercourse on the problems of ensuring stability and security on the continent. It makes one raise brows that such policy contradicts the position of US President Barack Obama who more than once stated the need to strengthen relations with Moscow.
The mechanical joining of the two state-political systems, set forward as a slogan, absolutely does not take into account the state of the international intercourse of the beginning of the 21st century, the whole complex of historical, military-political, ethnic-cultural and other preconditions of the formation of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic, and, above all – free and democratic will expression of the Pridnestrovien people is ignored.
It is the mechanical “combination of something that can not be combined” produced by the Stalin regime that laid down the foundations of the Moldova-Pridnestrovie conflict which took away hundreds of human lives. We would not like to see it as an attempt of the USA to once again put the stability and peace in Europe under threat.
The striving of the USA for using in a “hurried” manner the totalitarian formulas for settlement of the long-term complex problem without considering the current peculiarities, accumulated international experience and practical examples of the civilized settlement in Europe and on other continents as well (including the example of Southern Sudan), contradicts the universal principle “first, do no harm” and bears vivid politicized character. Denying people of Pridnestrovie their right to choose their own destiny, the USA ignores one of the fundamental principles of the international law and also the democratic traditions underlying the creation of the United States themselves.
We consider it necessary to notice, that the declarations of Mr. Biden concerning the settlement of the Moldova-Pridnestrovie conflict are beyond the scope of authorities of the state-observer – the status, which the USA has been in since 2005. In particular, the striving of Washington to predetermine the pattern of the settlement, comes in direct contradiction with the Point 6 of the “Rights and Obligations of Observers in the Negotiating Process” (approved by the corresponding Protocol, dated by September 27, 2005) which says that “the observers do not take part in the decision-making during the negotiating process”.
Those, who allow declarations which can destabilize already fragile peace on the Dniester, should realize the fact that their words can be accepted as a direct guide to action on the part of separate forces, and that such steps can not but bring about consequences.
