Danish diplomats visit Transnistria

The Head of the Denmark Foreign Ministry Department for EU-Russia neighborhood policy, Ruben Madsen, and Councilor-Envoy of the Danish Embassy in Bucharest Iorg Tranberg visited Tiraspol on Tuesday to learn more about situation in this breakaway region of the Republic of Moldova.

The diplomats held a meeting with the leadership of the Transnistrian supreme soviet [parliament], with whom the guests discussed the present-day relationship between the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria, political situation in the run-up to the parliamentary elections due in the region on December 12.

Supreme soviet speaker Anatoly Kaminsky said after the meeting, “I invited Denmark representatives to come to us on December 12 to see the elections, and suggested delegating profiled specialists and journalists here. This, I guess, should help them understand many things so as to let comprehend which development way our Transnistrian state follows and to assess the level of development of democracy in our republic”.

The Danish diplomats met with Transnistrian deputy minister of foreign affairs Alexander Malyarchuk, who remarked inter alia that the absence of a sound government in Chisinau is restricting possibilities for joint work with the Moldovan side.

The deputy minister highlighted main problems existing in the relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol and particularly highlighted the question of the external economic activities of Transnistrian industrial enterprises. In his words, the Moldovan authorities’ reluctance to ensure Transnistria’s right to a free external trade, which has been fixed in the 1997 Moscow Memorandum, has led to a situation when Transnistrian exporters suffer considerable damage due to Chisinau’s sanctions.

Malyarchuk admitted, however, that certain prerequisites appeared lately for a partial solution of this problem: Chisinau has stated that the Moldovan Government had passed a Resolution that should simplify the movement of Transnistrian cargoes. Yet the Transnistrian side has not come to feel any positive practical moves from Moldova’s behalf, so far.

Ruben Madsen voiced hope that the 5+2 talks would be resumed at official level.

The Transnistrian ministry of foreign affairs wrote on its website that the Danish diplomat informed his Tiraspol interlocutors about the wish of the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lene Espersen, to meet with Transnistrian foreign minister Vladimir Yastrebchak.

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