Transnistrian 5+2 Format Settlement Talks End In Bratislava With No Final Protocol - OSCE

The 5+2 format talks on Transnistria completed on Thursday in Bratislava with all the participants expressing commitment to continue working on a new Bratislava Protocol, Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Claus Neukirch said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2019) The 5+2 format talks on Transnistria completed on Thursday in Bratislava with all the participants expressing commitment to continue working on a new Bratislava Protocol, Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Claus Neukirch said.

"The talks in Bratislava, which took place on 9 and 10 October, have been constructive, although difficult at times. The Sides have reviewed the status quo of the 'Berlin-plus' package and discussed new priority areas for confidence-building. The Sides were very close to adopting a Protocol. The negotiations will continue in the next days with a view to producing a final version of the Bratislava Protocol," Neukirch said, as quoted by a press release.

Miroslav Lajcak, the organization's chairperson-in-office and the Slovak foreign minister, called on the participants of the talks to make effort in finding a compromise on the new protocol as soon as possible.

"I appeal to the whole '5+2' format, in particular to Moldova and Transdniestria, to do everything they can to find a compromise on the Protocol, which will be mutually acceptable, pragmatic and allow the Sides to work for the benefit of the people on both banks of the Dniester/Nistru River," Lajcak said.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister of the breakaway Transnistria region, Vitaly Ignatiev, accused Chisinau of the failure to agree on the new protocol at the recent talks.

Transnistria, a region with a predominantly ethnic Russian and Ukrainian population, is a self-proclaimed republic that seceded from the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990, fearing the country's possible reunion with Romania. The move triggered a war that ended in a ceasefire in July 1992, but the conflict has remained unresolved Moldova insists on offering the region the status of autonomy while Transnistria wants international recognition.

The so-called 5+2 format for the Transnistrian conflict talks was officially established in 2005, prior to which the parties to the talks had worked for three years in the format of regular meetings. The platform involves not only the two main parties to the conflict, Chisinau and Tiraspol, but also Russia, the OSCE and Ukraine as mediators, and the European Union and the United States as observers.