The Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitaly Ignatiev and Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Thomas Mayr-Harting. The meeting was attended by Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland Artur Dmochowski, Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Claus Neukirch and the OSCE CiO Coordinator for the Pridnestrovian Settlement Marek Calka.
Welcoming the guests, Vitaly Ignatiev noted that the current situation in the Moldova-Pridnestrovie negotiation process is stagnant, “None of the issues relevant and open on the Berlin Plus agenda has been resolved. Literally every day new problems arise related to restrictions in the supply of food, medicines, and fertilizers. Pridnestrovie’s main enterprise, the Moldova Steel Works (MMZ), has not been operating for two months now. The dialogue with the Moldovan side is still meaningless and fruitless.
According to the diplomat, in this situation Pridnestrovie has faced new threats in the form of a series of terrorist acts. “This actually creates a new reality, a significant threat to the security of Pridnestrovians, which is why we decided to introduce a red level of terrorist threat,” the Minister said, pointing to the importance of the OSCE’s role as an international mediator in stabilizing the situation.
For his part, Artur Dmochowski conveyed a message from OSCE Chairman-in-Office Zbigniew Rau that Pridnestrovie can count on the OSCE’s support in stabilizing the situation and peaceful resolution of current issues.
During the meeting, the PMR Foreign Minister outlined the key tasks at this stage. Minimizing the terrorist threat against Pridnestrovie is among them. At the same time, he stressed that not only recent terrorist acts but also particular statements of Moldovan officials do not contribute to de-escalation. Vitaly Ignatiev briefed the interlocutors on the ongoing investigation into the 25-26 April terrorist attacks. In this context, the Polish side was officially asked for information about the vehicle used during the attack on the PMR Ministry of State Security.
As the PMR Foreign Minister said, urgent socio-economic problems, primarily those relating to the supply of vital goods to Pridnestrovie, should be solved in parallel. The key economic issue, as he noted, is associated with the need to resume the Moldova Steel Works’ functioning. The Minister pointed to the politically motivated and unreasonable nature of restrictions put in place by the Moldovan side against the activities of this Pridnestrovian enterprise.
The Pridnestrovian side encouraged not to forget about the implementation of the Berlin Plus package agreements. The Minister emphasized the need for the Pridnestrovian-type license plate blanks to be returned, which would allow resuming the work of Vehicle Registration Offices.
In the course of the exchange, Vitaly Ignatiev regretted the reduced efficiency of the expert (working) groups, pointing out that the technical solutions identified by experts (for example, on the delivery of medicines) are not implemented due to the politicized approaches of Moldova at a higher level.
The Minister separately explained the aspects related to the freedom of movement of the population and the OSCE Mission in Moldova staff given the “red level” of terrorist threat introduced in Pridnestrovie.
In the context of the damage caused by the detention of the Pridnestrovian cargo over the past two months, the bank blockade and the shutdown of the MMZ, the Minister once again invited the OSCE to conduct joint monitoring of the situation in order to assess the losses incurred by Pridnestrovie and identify the compensation mechanisms.
