OSCE Mission Highlights Good Efforts Of Sides Involved In Transnistria Settlement

The chief of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Moldova, Kelly Keiderling, highlighted the significant efforts to settle the situation around breakaway Transnistria from all the sides involved, the mission said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2023) The chief of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Moldova, Kelly Keiderling, highlighted the significant efforts to settle the situation around breakaway Transnistria from all the sides involved, the mission said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, members of the OSCE mission led by Keiderling met with Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich and Russian Ambassador to Moldova Oleg Vasnetsov to discuss the situation in the country and the mission's activities.

"We briefed the delegation on the current status of the Transdniestrian settlement, explained the projects we manage to bring together people from both banks of the Dniester/Nistru River, and noted our ongoing monitoring on both sides of the river. Head of Mission underlined good efforts that leaders from both Sides had made throughout the past year to keep our region peaceful," the mission tweeted.

During the meeting, Keiderling stressed the important role of Russia in the "5+2" format that is helping the sides find an "enduring, long-term settlement," according to the mission.

In 2005, the "5+2" negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement process began, involving Moldova and Transnistria, as the two sides of the conflict, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE as mediators, with the European Union and the United States acting as observers.

Transnistria, 60% of whose citizens are Russians and Ukrainians, had been seeking secession from Moldova before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Chisinau has exercised no control over Transnistria since 1992. The breakaway republic is not recognized internationally, while Moldova and all members of the United Nations consider the republic to be a part of Moldova.