A Regular Round of Negotiations on Trans-Dniestrian Issue to Open in Tiraspol

A regular round of pentalateral negotiations on the settlement of the Trans-Dniestrian conflict is to open in Tiraspol on Thursday. As the OSCE mission in Moldavia reports, the participants in the negotiations - Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE and representatives of Chisinau and Tiraspol - will consider for the first time in this format a draft Agreement on the final settlement of the Trans-Dniestrian problem initiated by Moldavian President Vladimir Voronin.

This document stipulates that the final settlement of the Trans-Dniestrian problem should be based on "re-integration of Moldavia and Trans-Dniestria into a single, independent and democratic state." Reintegration, as the draft Agreement points out, "should be based on the principles of the unity of the territory and state power, the democratic republican political system and the federative state set-up." The Tiraspol round intends to continue to discuss the draft agreement proposed by the OSCE in June 2002 in Kiev.