Monitoring→Politics→Transnistrian Conflict

Letter of the interim President Mihai Ghimpu to NATO Secretary General

On November 12, 2010 the Interim President of the Republic of Moldova, Mihai Ghimpu, sent a letter to NATO Secretary General, Anders Rasmussen. The message refers to the context of current discussions on the revitalization of the “Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe” and the preparations for the OSCE summit in Astana. The letter states position of the Republic of Moldova towards the Russian military presence in Moldova; it comes up with assumptions vis-à-vis an eventual conduct of Russia under the conditions of CFE Treaty revitalization; it expresses the possible option of not ratifying the revitalized Treaty and asks for assistance in favour of the Republic of Moldova as follows:

• at OSCE Summit in Istanbul in 1999 Russia committed to withdraw military units from the eastern districts of Moldova, but it has not honoured its commitments, “violating the rules of international law and Moldovan Constitution, which prohibits foreign troops stationing on the territory of sovereign and independent Republic of Moldova”;
• Russian troops “are not only a constant source of threat towards the security of the Republic of Moldova, but also a source for feeding the Transnistrian separatism…, seriously undermining the international community’s efforts aimed at peaceful conflict resolution”;
• discussions on the revitalization of the “Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe” try to “save” this important document for European security, “overlooking the Russia’s failure to enforce the Istanbul commitments on Moldova”;
• revitalization of this Treaty “can not be done with this price and an injustice to the Republic of Moldova should not be allowed”;
• the idea to present the “principle of host state acceptance” as a substitute in the “Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe” for the commitments made in Istanbul by the Russian Federation on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova is not convincing. This principle is not new, since it is also present in the up-dated text of the “Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe”;
• “principles of host state acceptance” doesn’t imply withdrawal of troops, but they deployment in Transnistria with the consent of the host state. Therefore, “the principle of host state acceptance” may become “a lever for blackmail in the hands of the Russian Federation in its relations with Moldova”;
• Russian Federation will be able to blackmail the Republic of Moldova in the sense that “if it does not give its consent to the Russian military presence in Transnistria, then Russia will have nothing to do but to recognize Transnistria in order to get «the principle of host state acceptance» from the alleged «Moldovan Nistrian Republic»;
• currently Moscow claims it doesn’t need the Georgia’s consent to maintain its troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, because it has the consent of these two unrecognized entities”;
• Russia will continue to argue that given that “principles of host state acceptance” is contained in a treaty that refers to conventional armaments, the recalled principle don’t refer to the Russian troops deployed in Transnistria, because there are no conventional weapons any more;
• within the current negotiations on arms control regime, the Republic of Moldova’s position on the illegal presence of Russian troops on its territory is — “immediate, orderly and full withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldovan territory”;
• Moldova’s position should be taken into account by states parties to the “Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe”. Otherwise, “the ratification of this treaty, even if «revitalized», will be problematic”;
• complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldovan territory “will create necessary conditions for the peaceful settlement of Transnistrian conflict and will also contribute to the strengthening of stability and security in the region”.

Tiraspol is against the modification of the EU and USA status in the negotiation process

Foreign minister of Tiraspol, Vladimir Yastrebceac, stated on November 4 that Transnistrian authorities consider that status of the EU and USA in Transnistrian conflict settlement process does not need to be changed. According Yastrebceac there is no ground for such an approach, because “the EU and USA have sufficient opportunities to participate in the «5+2» format negotiations in the current status of observers”. He considers that in order to resume the activity in “5+2” format it is necessary to observe the formula of “the presence of two equal, efficient and legitimate partners — Republic of Moldova and Transnistria”, since “none of arithmetic combinations will replace those two high level parties in the conflict”. Previously, the proposal to change the observer status of the EU and USA in the negotiation process into that of mediators, similar to that of Russia, Ukraine and OSCE, was made by Moldovan deputy Prime Minister for reintegration, Victor Osipov.

Garmisch Conference on confidence building measures

On November 9–10, 2010 in German city of Garmisch a conference was held on the confidence building measures between the two banks of Nistru. The position expressed by Transnistrian side was based on stressing three principles:

• resolution of any problems between Chisinau and Tiraspol must be based on the principle of equality of parties.
• observance of the Transnistrian constitution, which allows the inter-ministerial cooperation with the Republic of Moldova in order to solve common problems to improve the lives of people on both banks of the river — combating the crime, health protection etc. All issues regarding Moldovan-Transnistrian settlement must be based on real agreements and a guaranteed mechanism for achieving them.
• Chisinau should give answers to three important documents for Transnistria, that were submitted to it — a) Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation between Transnistria and Moldova, which is based on the agreements reached in the past, b) the document referring to the main elements to eliminate the possibility of applying military force and other measures of pressure in Moldovan-Transnistrian settlement, c) Agreement on the basis system of guarantees in Moldovan-Transnistrian settlement.

Fixed phone communication between the two banks of the river Nistru will be made not any more through intermediaries

State Enterprise “State Registration Chamber” has announced on November 11 that it will register the economic companies from Transnistria in the area of communications, providing them with company registration certificate. At the same time, the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology will issue the licenses for those companies that are necessary this activity. In the same context, the Finance Ministry should develop the procedure for mutual settlements.

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