Transnistria speaks for trade regime with EU, separately from Moldova

The authorities of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic want to work out a “distinctive formula of economic collaboration with the European Union and to entrench it in a special Annex to the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Agreement due to be signed by Moldova and by the European Union.

This statement was made by the deputy chairperson of the Transnistrian government, minister of foreign affairs Nina Shtansky.    

She reasoned this by the fact that the conclusion of a new agreement between Brussels and Chisinau will only worsen the existent dissentions between the two banks of the Dniester.   

“In order to head off any possible negative consequences, in particular, within the direct consultations between representatives of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic and the European Union, it is necessary to work out a special formula of their economic collaboration, with regard to the protracted conflict in the relations between Transnistria and Moldova,” thinks Nina Shtansky.   

She also said that only this way, it will be possible to avoid possible complications of the situation in the region. “Otherwise, the radicalization of the current scenario will become imminent,” she said.

Transnistrian leader Yevgeny Shevchuk presented a similar stance on the matter, at a recent conference on the Transnistrian settlement, held in Germany. “Currently, when external processes have become much more active over the zone of free trade with the European Union, when negotiations in Ukraine and Moldova are gaining momentum, when economic development vectors have been chosen that are a basic element for politics, one should realize that there is an unsettled, protracted conflict in our territory. We need to work out a formula of an efficient and fair solution. I really think that in the current situation, the most fair solution of the conflict would be a civilized divorce”, said Yevgeny Shevchuk.     

In his opinion, a change of the rules of external economic activities will become an instrument of pressure on Transnistria, “therefore it is necessary to fix the factual current state of things and to start looking for a civilized solution”.  

Adapted from Infotag