Dodon is afraid to discuss the Transnistria issue with Sandu
The next round of negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement in the "5+2" format, which will take place in Bratislava on October 9-10, will not be productive, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Moldovan President Igor Dodon, who is considered pro-Russian, admitted that maintaining the coalition with the pro-European ACUM bloc is now more important to him than solving the Transnistrian problem.
“We have an idea for such a plan, but our partners are not yet ready to discuss it. If they are afraid to say the word CIS and go to Moscow, then raising the issue of a political settlement in Transnistria now means blowing up the coalition. And we want to support this coalition,” Dodon said in an interview with NTV Moldova.
According to him, we cannot count on solving the Transnistrian problem this year.
“We can count on it, but not this year, if the coalition holds out until spring. Only in this format could we convince external partners that we can move. For this reason, this coalition can and should be maintained. There must be a consensus within here. What we agree on here must be agreed upon with Tiraspol and then offered to our external partners,” Dodon said.
So far, there is no consensus between the coalition partners. Prime Minister of Moldova Maia Sandu rejected the possibility of signing a document implying “the creation of two separate legal units within a single state” as contrary to the national interests of the country, infotag.md reports.
“In addition, this is impossible without the support of the parliamentary majority, which does not exist on this issue. Moreover, this is impossible, since the majority of citizens are against federalization,” Sandu said.
The head of the OSCE mission in Chisinau, Klaus Neukirch, said in an interview with the Moldpres agency that the participants in the meeting in Bratislava wanted to discuss the special status of Transnistria, but then decided that it was too early to do so. According to him, the mission’s mandate “excludes the idea of independence for Transnistria,” but allows for autonomy based on the Gagauzian model. At the same time, Moldova cannot become a federal state
Dodon is afraid to discuss the Transnistria issue with Sandu.