FORMAL TRANSDNIESTR TALKS EXPECTED TO REOPEN SOON: OSCE (AFP, 10 September 2011)
VILNIUS, September 10, 2011. OSCE chair Lithuania said Saturday it expected multilateral talks on Moldova's breakaway region Transdniestr to be formally relaunched later this month.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis said a deal was reached Friday in talks he held in Germany with Moldova's Prime Minister Vlad Filat and Transdniestrian leader Igor Smirnov."I am glad that the meeting in Bavaria organized by OSCE chair Lithuania brought results and hope that the process will be renewed on September 22 in Moscow," Azubalis told AFP on Saturday.
He described the meeting in the German town of Bad Reichenhall as "a millimetre step" seeking solution in the frozen conflict, but said it was the best possible outcome.
So-called "5+2" talks on the conflict - involving Moldova, Transdniestr, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE, plus the European Union and United States as observers - were suspended in 2006.
Only informal talks have continued since then.
Transdniestr, a predominantly Russian-speaking region, unilateraly declared independence from Moldova in 1991 as the latter split from the Soviet Union.
It then engaged in armed conflict with Romanian-speaking Moldovans between 1991 and 1992, with the loss of some 700 lives.
It has never achieved international recognition.
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