OSCE participating countries reconfirm importance of talks in 5+2 format

Chisinau, 4 December /MOLDPRES/ - The 27th meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council was held on 3-4 December 2020; the participants in the event approved a new declaration on the process of negotiations in the 5+2 format on the Transnistrian settlement, the Reintegration Policies Bureau has reported.   

The officials of those 57 OSCE member states reconfirmed the importance of the process of talks in the 5+2 format as single mechanism of dialogue for the comprehensive and sustainable settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. They urged the sides to organize, in 2021, as soon as possible, a new round of negotiations, oriented on the approach focused on results and to continue to properly get involved also during the Swedish OSCE chairmanship due next year.

The sides were also encouraged to enhance their interaction and coordination in the management of the challenges dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. They also stressed importance to ensure the permanent interconnection between the two banks of Dniester and called on making constructive efforts, in order to quickly reestablish the freedom of movement.  

At the same time, the sides were urged to boost the dialogue and efforts, in order to ensure the protection of human rights, as well as to launch new joint initiatives meant to promote the confidence building measures based on the progress made in the implementation of the Berlin+ package.   

At the same time, the text of the declaration highlighted the need to strengthen the commitments agreed upon on priority issues and ensuring the implementation of all agreements contained in the protocols of the 5+2 format of talks from Rome in 2018, Vienna and 2017 and Berlin in 2016.

The OSCE Ministerial Council made a call to the sides to continue, in a sustained way, the efforts at all levels of negotiations, in order to achieve tangible progress on all three baskets of the agenda of talks: social and economic issues; general aspects of law, humanitarian and human rights aspects; comprehensive settlement of the conflict; including the institutional, political and security aspects.

As usual, just as in the previous declarations, the OSCE participating states reiterated their firm determination to achieve a comprehensive, peaceful and sustainable settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, based on Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, in its internationally recognized borders, with the providing of a special status to the Transnistrian region, which would guarantee the observance of human, political, economic and social rights for the residents of the region.