Transnistrian Leader Hopes OSCE Will Bring Kishinev to Negotiating Table

TIRASPOL (Sputnik) - Vadim Krasnoselsky, the president of breakaway Transnistria, hopes the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will make effort in order to bring Kishinev back to talks and compel it to fulfill its obligations, he told Sputnik on Monday.

"Despite the current problems of the external factor, I still hope that the OSCE will make more active effort in order to bring the Moldovan side back to the negotiating table and compel it to fulfill its previously assumed obligations to Transnistria within the negotiating process," Krasnoselsky said.

Under current circumstances this diplomatic task is extremely difficult but manageable provided there is real willingness, professionalism, as well as political will, he added.

Transnistria has never been against the internationally agreed negotiating principles and mechanisms, including the participation of the OSCE, Krasnoselsky also said, adding that Tiraspol "is in this regard different from Kishinev, which regularly demands to change the format and the composition of the international negotiating process, insisting on the so-called transformation of the peacekeeping mission."

Kishinev and Tiraspol are both the participants of the 5+2 format, aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict between Moldova and breakaway Transnistria. The format also includes Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE, as mediators, as well as The European Union and the United States as observers.

In 1992, Transnistria, 60% of whose population are Russians and Ukrainians, became a territory virtually outside the control of Kishinev. After the start of Russia's military operation in neighboring Ukraine, tensions in Transnistria escalated.