Transnistria: Decision without Progress
On July 12 Ministers of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Zlenko of Ukraine, Igor Ivanov of Russia, and Nicolae Cernomaz of Moldova signed in Kyiv a joint communiquО, in which they voiced their determination to continue negotiations aimed at the final solution of the Transnistrian conflict on the principle of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova and granting Transnistria a special status in it. The Ukrainian and Russian ministers confirmed their countries’ readiness to act as guarantors of a comprehensive settlement. “We are closer than ever before to solving this problem,” Moldovan Minister Cernomaz noted. These were the official results of the tripartite ministerial meeting in Kyiv.
In general, the Russian minister’s visit was the main diplomatic event of the week and confirmed that Moscow is paying close attention to CIS affairs. Tellingly, it was stated officially perhaps for the first time during this visit that the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations on delimiting the land border have entered, in Ivanov’s words, the final stage. Also indicative is the fact that the Kyiv talks touched upon preparations for a trilateral meeting of the presidents of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus to be held in Vitebsk on July 25 and for an informal meeting of the CIS heads of state on August 1 in Sochi. Also significant were Mr. Ivanov’s statements that the Kyiv tripartite talks discussed the coordination of efforts in Europe and that the election of Mr. Voronin as president of Moldova gave a new impulse to the settlement process in Transnistria. It became obvious that Moscow has, overtly or covertly, a friendly feeling for Mr. Voronin who has already said Moldova wishes to join the Russian-Belarusian Union and the Eurasian Economic Community. And, finally, it was also telling that no representatives of Tiraspol attended the Kyiv talks on Transnistrian settlement.
On the eve of Mr. Ivanov’s visit, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, answering a question of Komsomolskaya pravda readers, expressed hope that there will be “more business” and less politics in the relations between Ukraine and Russia, linking this with the appointment of Viktor Chernomyrdin as Russian ambassador here. In his opinion, Russia will not demand political concessions from Ukraine as payment for its natural gas debts.
“We are satisfied with the progress of Ukrainian-Russian relations. We are dynamically solving all the existing problems and coordinate our efforts in the interests of cooperation between the two countries,” Mr. Ivanov said in Kyiv. References to coordination is also a significant thing for analysts.
As far as the political component of Ukrainian-Russian relations is concerned, the situation is perhaps relatively clear today.
But everything is far from being clear, as far as the Transnistria situation is concerned. Minister Zlenko thinks there has been no tangible progress so far. On the one hand, negotiations on the problem of settlement have been resumed, the two sides have held regular summit meetings, signed a number of documents, and considered President Voronin’s and the country leadership’s desire to achieve the final and, as Minister Ivanov put it, fair solution of the problems that resulted from the conflict. But there is practically no progress in sight on the main issue of defining the status of Transnistria. According to Mr. Zlenko, Ukraine has noted that the Transnistrian leadership has taken a firmer stand on statehood issue, which only complicates the situation.
