CHISINAU. April 3 (Interfax) - Plans of Moldovan and Transdniestrian negotiators to meet on Friday have been thwarted by disagreements over the meeting venue, Moldova's Bureau for Reintegration said.
"Tiraspol political representative Vitaly Ignatyev refused to meet in Chisinau or online and insisted on holding the meeting in Bender," the bureau said.
"This completely counterproductive approach proves Tiraspol's reluctance to reinstate dialogue and to solve the accumulated problems at the negotiating table. Following an externally imposed agenda that contradicts the interests of citizens on both banks of the Dniester, Tiraspol seeks to lead the dialogue into an impasse and sow mistrust in society," it said.
The bureau regretted that a meeting in the 1+1 format "had been blocked by Tiraspol again."
In turn, a statement issued by Transdniestria voiced "concern over another refusal of the Moldovan side to attend a meeting of political representatives at the Bender office of the OSCE mission."
The Foreign Ministry initiated a meeting of the chief negotiators back on March 25 "in order to boost the dialogue and find solutions to the entire range of problems," the statement said.
"Although the meeting time and date, April 3, and its agenda were approved, [Chisinau's chief negotiator Oleg] Serebrian refused to hold the meeting in the generally accepted format of direct communication, once again disrupting this event. We view the stance of the Moldovan negotiator and the public statement of his bureau as intentional sabotage of the negotiating process and an attempt to discredit the legitimate dialogue mechanisms," it said.
The statement urged the intermediaries and observers of the 5+2 format (Moldova, Transdniestria, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE, as well as EU and U.S. observers) to use "all resources available for bringing the Moldovan side back to the negotiating table in the normal format of direct in-person dialogue" and noted that the latest 1+1 meeting was held four months ago.
Transdniestrian officials fear visiting Moldova after the Moldovan parliament passed an amendment in February 2023 to criminalize "separatism." They believe that Chisinau police can arrest any Transdniestrian official on such counts. Besides, Ignatyev, who is also a citizen of Ukraine, is wanted by the Security Service of Ukraine.