Transnistrian Conflict on September 27 – October 10, 2005

The European Union and the US have been invited to join the Transnistrian negotiations process as observers — this was decided during the consultations between representatives of the parties in conflict and of the mediators on behalf of the OSCE, the Russian Federation and Ukraine that took place on 26–27 September in Odesa. The status of observers has been defined in a OSCE Protocol regarding the rights and obligations of the observers in the negotiations process. According to the protocol, the observers have the right to participate in the official meetings, take the floor during those meetings, and ask questions. They may be asked questions by the other participants in the talks. They cannot however sign any documents discussed adopted within the talks and cannot participate in the decision making. Thus the new format is an asymmetrical one, and as such is called “5+2”.

Also in Odesa the sides agreed to resume the negotiations process on 27–28 October in Chisinau and Odesa, in the new “5+2” format. “We have managed to move from the dead point the huge machinery that is the negotiations process and that has not been going for more than a year”, summed up the results of the consultations for the press Ukraine’s special representative for the Transnistrian issue Dmitri Tkaci. According to Tkaci, in Odessa the sides discussed issues related to the Moldovan-Ukrainian border monitoring, the international monitoring of the military-industrial complex of Transnistria, as well as the prospects of organising democratic elections in the region. In addition, in Odesa the Russian representative handed in to the participants a document with Russia’s proposals on the Transnistrian issue.

The latter seems to be a new Russian settlement plan, which, according to the head of the Transnistrian foreign department, Valeri Litkai, will be the main subject on the agenda of the negotiations round on 27–28 October. While the Moldovan press has remained quiet about the contents of the new plan, Litkai told the press in Tiraspol it is a “serious and elaborated document that has emerged as a result of four months of consultations with all sides”. According to the same source, the document contains about 75% of the Kozak Plan and about 15–20% of Yushcenko’s proposals, and takes over almost entirely the basic elements of the Kozak Plan. Asked about the reaction of the Moldovan side to the plan, Litkai only said that it does not correspond categorically to the contents of the documents with regard to Transnistria adopted recently by the Moldovan Parliament.

Although right on the eve of the Odesa consultations the Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin said Moldova will agree to return to the negotiations table only if the EU and US join the negotiations process as full fledged members, the Moldovan side showed generally happy with the results of the Odesa talks. During a meeting with the EU Commissioner for External Relations and Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who was on a visit to Chisinau on the occasion of opening of a European Commission Delegation to Moldova, President Voronin said the participation of the EU and the US as observers in the Transnistrian settlement process is an achievement Moldova has sought for many years. Voronin has expressed hope that through the joint efforts of the Moldovan authorities and the international community the moment of reintegration draws close and assured his guest that Moldova will do its best to work constructively and efficiently with all participants in the negotiations.

On the other hand, the head of the Transnistrian “foreign ministry”, Valeri Litkai, explained the fact that Tiraspol accepted to invite the EU and the US to join the negotiations format through the “change in the geopolitical situation around Transnistria”, notably the change of view on this issue in Kiev and in particular in Moscow. According to Litkai, by agreeing to include the EU and the US in the negotiations, Moscow is trying to avoid the situation when these two prevented the implementation of the Kozak Plan back in November 2003. The inclusion of the EU and the US in the negotiations, is expressly provided for in the new Russian settlement proposal, Litkai also said; by taking part as observers, the EU and the US will be on board with what is happening, and this will deprive the Moldovan side of the possibility of playing the card of Russian-Western contradictions in its favour. In addition, Litkai said that the participation of the EU and the US in the negotiations will allow these to be informed correctly, from the primary source, about the course of events, and not through the prism of the Moldovan position. “For the time being, things go in a clear direction for us”, Litkai concluded the position of the Tiraspol administration on the results of the Odessa consultations.

In another development, on 7 October in Palanca the EU Commissioner for External Relations and the Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the Moldovan Foreign Minister, Andrei Stratan, and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Boris Tarasiuk, signed the trilateral EU-Moldova-Ukraine Memorandum of Understanding for the EU’s Border Assistance Mission. “The purpose of the Mission is to build capacity for border management, including customs, on the whole Moldova-Ukraine border. This will help prevent trafficking in people, smuggling of goods, the proliferation of weapons and customs fraud”, Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said at the event. According to her, the mission will start its activity on 1 December 2005 and will consist of 50 experts from the EU Member States. These will work within mobile groups, which will carry out unannounced visits at any police, customs or fiscal point, will formulate recommendations on improving their activity, will provide advice and on-the-job training for the Moldovan and Ukrainian officers. “ We want to help you manage your border in a more modern and efficient way. This will also make an important contribution to reaching a solution to the Transnistria conflict. Resolving that conflict will be a tremendous victory for peace, security and stability in our common neighbourhood. We must all work hard to achieve it”, the European Commissioner declared during the ceremony of signature of the trilateral memorandum.

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Transnistrian Conflict on September 27 – October 10, 2005

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