OSCE announces a 5+2 meeting in Rome, following continued progress on reaching agreements within the Transdniestrian Settlement Process

VIENNA, 11 May 2018 - “The Italian OSCE Chairmanship welcomes the recent positive developments in the Transdniestrian Settlement Process and commends the Sides, as well as all involved partners, for this progress. We will be pleased to host the next round of the 5+2 meetings on 29 and 30 May in Rome, and are hopeful that we will see further positive steps that will bring more benefits to the lives of people on both banks of the Nistru/Dniester River,” Ambassador Alessandro Azzoni, Chairperson of the OSCE Permanent Council, announced during a session of the Council on 10 May.

The unprecedented progress in the settlement process is due to the political will by the Sides to adopt the output-based approach to the negotiations process called for by the 57 participating States in OSCE Ministerial Council Statements in 2016 and 2017 (https://www.osce.org/chairmanship/378679). As Franco Frattini, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian Settlement Process, stated following his visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol earlier this year (https://www.osce.org/chairmanship/376393), a new norm for the settlement process is being created through local ownership and leadership with three of the five breakthrough agreements signed in November 2017 already implemented. 

“The 5+2 meeting, supported by our partners, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the EU and the United States, will provide an excellent opportunity to take stock of the implementation of the November agreements, to discuss the finalization of the remaining deliverables of the 5+2 Vienna Protocol and to think about new initiatives to deepen the trust between the Sides further, thereby advancing the settlement process,” Azzoni said.  

The goal of the 5+2 talks is to work out the parameters of a comprehensive settlement based on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova within its internationally recognized borders with a special status for Transdniestria, as reconfirmed by all 57 participating States in the Ministerial Council Statement in Vienna in 2017. The 5+2 format includes representatives of the Sides, mediators and observers in the negotiation process – Moldova, Transdniestria, the OSCE, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the European Union and the United States.