President Yevgeny Shevchuk received Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitaly Ignatiev. The Foreign Minister reported on the new unilateral actions by the Republic of Moldova aimed at creating additional difficulties for the Pridnestrovian economic agents.
In particular, recently, the Moldovan side started to make new demands on the drivers of the Moldova Steel Works, involved in the transportation of dangerous goods, in addition to the already existing – relevant annual training. Now for this training the staff of the plant should also get a whole set of Moldovan documents, including driver’s licenses. “The interests of Pridnestrovian economic agents are infringed again due to unilateral efforts of our partners in Kishinev. They cast doubt on driver’s licenses of Pridnestrovian drivers, although this is contrary to earlier agreements on mutual recognition of documents of this kind on the territory of the PMR and Moldova” – the President noted.
During the dialogue it was emphasized that solutions have not been reached on any of the problems identified in the agenda of the negotiating process so far. Of particular concern to Pridnestrovie are unilateral actions of the Republic of Moldova, in some cases, taken together with Ukraine in the field of road and rail freight communication. According to Vitaly Ignatiev, the Pridnestrovian side has forwarded an initiative to hold the next meeting of the expert (working) groups to discuss these issues, however, Kishinev has not yet informed about the readiness for the meeting.
“The Moldovan side avoids substantive discussion of the accumulated problems. Meanwhile, the unilateral actions of the Republic of Moldova worsen the situation of the economic agents of Pridnestrovie, undermine confidence, actually demonstrate the futility of considering an issue of finding a mutually acceptable solutions on the most painful aspects in the near future” – emphasized the Head of State.
During the meeting the Minister of Foreign Affairs also briefed the President on the execution of the task to settle certain aspects of work of Pridnestrovian taxi services outside the country – in the territory of Moldova. Let us recall that this problem was voiced by taxi drivers during a meeting with the President on September 12 this year.
“Recently, our taxi drivers have started to face difficulties associated with attempts of law enforcement officials of Moldova to stop the vehicles with special taxi signs. Pridnestrovian drivers were declared that they were illegally on the territory of Moldova. This issue was discussed at the meeting of the expert (working) groups. Moldovan experts have assured that no additional requirements and limitations exist, the work will be done with their specialized agencies in order to avoid these cases” – Vitaly Ignatiev informed.
In addition, the Foreign Minister informed the President about the forthcoming visit of the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Cord Meier-Klodt in Pridnestrovie, which is scheduled for early next week. “We hope that through this conversation we will be able to get specific information, including the position of the participants of the negotiation process regarding our initiative to hold a meeting in the 5+2 format on the analysis of all aspects of the Berlin Protocol execution. Along with this we have also shared the package of proposals relating to the conclusion of a new railway agreement. Perhaps our partners already have ideas on the draft document” – noted the Foreign Minister of the PMR.
Following the meeting, the President tasked the Foreign Ministry to work out additional political and diplomatic methods to cancel out negative effects of the unilateral actions by the Moldovan side, supported by Ukraine. At the same time the Head of State ordered once again to inform all participants to the negotiation process about the existing problems in relations between Pridnestrovie and the Republic of Moldova, about the position of the Pridnestrovian side. The President noted that in view of recent developments an issue of the feasibility of developing a complex symmetric response to the unilateral actions of Moldova becomes relevant. This decision will be taken at the level of the Security Council after discussion in the relevant structures.
Source: Official Website of the President of the PMR
