This year, the OSCE is chaired by Albania, led by its Prime Minister Edi Rama. The Austrian diplomat Thomas Mayr-Harting has been appointed Special Representative for the Moldova-Pridnestrovie settlement. Today he is visiting Pridnestrovie for the first time, in his current position. The foreign diplomat visited the republic: in 2017, as a representative of the European Union in the “5 + 2” format, he met with the President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR. The current visit also involved communication with the leader of the Pridnestrovian state, which was preceded by a dialogue with the head of the Foreign Ministry.
The meeting of the Pridnestrovian President Vadim Krasnoselsky and the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office is taking place in Bendery in the conference hall located on the territory of the Alexander Nevsky Park. The host country, in addition to the Head of the Pridnestrovien state, is represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitaly Ignatiev and the Advisor to the President of the PMR on foreign policy, the Ambassador – at – large in the rank of Deputy Minister Ruslan Slobodenyuk. The delegation, led by Thomas Mayr-Harting, includes the head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Klaus Neukirch and a group of advisers. The meeting’s agenda includes discussion of the current state of affairs in the negotiation process, identification of priority in the working areas for the current year and, possibly, a further perspective.
The dialogue was started by Vadim Krasnoselsky, calling it necessary. Welcoming the guests, the PMR President noted that Pridnestrovie highly appreciates the importance of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and expects the active participation and productivity of the Albanian chairmanship in the negotiation process between Pridnestrovie and Moldova. Significant Vadim Krasnoselsky stated the fact that Mr. Harting is well acquainted with the situation, the negotiation agenda and the principles of the “5 + 2” format.
The President Vadim Krasnoselsky noted a considerable decrease in negotiation activity near to stagnation last year after two years (2017-2018) of its activation. He voiced specific figures, clearly illustrating the serious reduction in the number of meetings of negotiators and meetings of expert (working) groups, to the activities of which Vadim Krasnoselsky assigns an important role. The head of the Pridnestrovian state focused the interlocutors on the non-fulfillment by the Moldovan side of a significant number of obligations undertaken as a result of previous agreements. Concrete examples were given, items on the negotiation agenda that did not lose relevance from meeting to meeting were named. The head of the Pridnestrovian state noted that the course of the negotiation process was always difficult, but the year 2019, electorally active for Moldova, was a clear transition from a compromise movement based on reasonable pragmatism towards each other to stagnate negotiations with clear signs that Moldova desired to suspend or even destroy the format of the Permanent Meeting ... Vadim Krasnoselsky recalled the situation with signing the final documents in Bavaria and Bratislava failing and outlined his vision of reasons for the occurred situation.
The PMR’s President stressed that the Pridnestrovian side is responding to any facts of violation of Pridnestrovians rights. He called on the OSCE representatives not to leave these aspects and the course of the negotiation process wholly unnoticed, noting that the Pridnestrovian side is interested in the position of European diplomats and their participation in resolving problematic issues is valuable.
Thomas Mayr-Harting, in turn, noted that the significance of resolving the issues of the Pridnestrovien-Moldovan negotiation agenda for him is evidenced by the fact that he arrived in Pridnestrovie three weeks after his appointment to the post of Special Representative. The diplomat noted that he would take measures to intensify work in the previous areas, and also expected to offer new opportunities to solve existing problems. Thomas Mayr-Harting said that he arrived in Pridnestrovie via the bridge near the Bychok and Gura-Bykului villages. He noted the importance of this initiative, emphasizing that it is necessary to make every effort so that its practical implementation is one hundred percent.
After exchanging greetings and indicating the parties’ position on the agenda main issues, the interlocutors continued a working dialogue without media participation.
Source: the PMR’s President website
