OSCE Chairperson welcomes participants of renewed official 5+2 talks on Transdniestrian settlement in Vilnius

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis, welcomed the participants of the renewed official 5+2 negotiations on the Transdniestrian settlement which started in Vilnius on 30 November 2011.

Ažubalis stressed that the two-day meeting, first after a nearly six-year hiatus, “is an important step which became possible thanks to the goodwill and joint effort of all participants and stakeholders”.

The 5+2 format - officially, “The Permanent Conference on Political Issues in the Framework of the Negotiating Process for Transdniestrian Settlement’” - consists of the sides, mediators and observers in the negotiations – Moldova, Transdniestria, the OSCE, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the US and the EU. A decision to resume the official negotiations was taken in Moscow this year on 22 September.