Tiraspol, November 24. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Pridnestrovie remains committed to the “5+2” format, which has not lost its relevance. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR Vitaly Ignatiev stated this in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“It is important to regularly encourage the current OSCE Chairmanship to convene a “5+2”. Pridnestrovie remains committed to this format, which has absolutely not lost its relevance. This is a useful international platform that operates in accordance with the principles of transparency, competition and equality of the conflicting parties, where the status and rights of the participants are secured, and there is an agreed negotiation space,” Ignatiev said.
Vitaly Ignatiev emphasized that attempts to replace negotiations in the “5+2” format with some alternative tracks in Tiraspol are considered “harmful and unpromising”, and recalled that the work of this consultative platform was suspended by Moldova back in 2019. That is, long before the events in Ukraine.
“As for the international format “5+2”, the pretexts voiced today for refusing to convene meetings are of an artificial, subjective nature... Therefore, of course, we see elements of politicized slowdown of the negotiation process and freezing of contacts between the parties, which is a very alarming sign in the current realities,” - Ignatiev noted.
The negotiations on the Pridnestrovian settlement in the “5+2” format involve Chisinau and Tiraspol as parties to the conflict, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE as mediators, the European Union and the United States as observers. The last round of negotiations took place in Bratislava on October 9 and 10, 2019.
