Moldova's Federalization Not On 5+2 Format Participants' Agenda In Bratislava - Sandu

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2019) Moldovan Prime Minister Maya Sandu said on Wednesday that proposal on the country's federalization as an option for resolving the Transnistrian conflict will not be discussed at the 5+2 format meeting in Slovakia's capital of Bratislava.

"Not a single document will be signed in Bratislava that contradicts the national interests of Moldova. I am categorically against federalization, it cannot happen, since most of Moldova's population is against this process," Sandu said.

The prime minister added that as of today there is no parliamentary majority in the country that would be ready to support federalization.

"At present, there are no internal and external conditions for an instant political solution to the conflict. A political solution can be found only if Moldova's territorial integrity remains preserved," Sandu noted.

In the 2000s, Moscow proposed that Moldova be federalized as a way of resolving the conflict, but the idea was rejected by then-Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, who feared that such a transformation may result in the irreversible secession of Transnistria.

Transnistria, a region with a predominantly ethnically Russian and Ukrainian population, seceded from the Soviet Republic of Moldova in 1990, fearing a possible reunion with Romania. The separation led to an armed conflict that ended in a ceasefire in July 1992, although the issue is still unresolved.

Moldova's Chisinau and Tiraspol participate as parties to the conflict, Russia, Ukraine, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as mediators, the European Union and the United States as observers in the negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement in the 5+2 format.

The next meeting of the format participants will be held in the capital of Slovakia on October 8-10.