Analyses

Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh are so-called frozen conflicts” of the Eastern Partnership, a grouping which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. These conflicts represent a serious challenge to the security, stability, and prosperity of the Eastern Partnership countries. The last 20 years have proven that their resolution cannot be achieved by using military force. On the contrary, their future settlement needs a complex approach that would involve not only political negotiation, but also civil society dialogues, confidence and partnership building and reconciliation. That approach has become the official policy of Moldovan authorities with regard to the Transnistrian conflict. Yet, it has gained modest ground in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh, where the main political actors are in a deadlock.

When asked about the prospects of settling the Transnistrian issue, Prime Minister Filat states each time that he is ready to fly to the moon if this is what it takes to achieve Moldovas reintegration. Does Mr. Filat want to repeat the adventures of Baron Munchhausen? Certainly not, the Prime Minister is an experienced, pragmatic and rational politician and not at all an adventurer. Speaking metaphorically, he wants to assure us that in order to solve this conflict he is decided to do everything in his power.

This analysis has been written in the framework of the APE project European Integration and Foreign Policy Debates” that is implemented in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Moldova.

The European Union uses positive conditionality—rewarding countries for adopting specific reforms—as a tool to promote open society values. The case of Moldova shows how clearly defined benchmarks and tangible reward enables the EU to push governments to adopt valuable reforms.

If the Republic of Moldova would join the Customs Union Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan, its apologists assure us that well have a good life, well benefit from cheap gas and our wine will flow freely to the Russian market and Transnistria issue will be finally resolved. These promises/arguments are compelling for many of those 57% of Moldovans who, according to the latest Public Opinion Barometer, are ready to vote for the integration of our country into the Customs Union. It sounds like a sweet mermaid song, in particular, for that part of our society that still is nostalgic for "proletarian welfare" of the defunct USSR.

Notably, the 2012 Index is based on a more elaborate set of questions than the 2011 Index was. The 2011 Index was based on nearly 400 questions, while this years Index is based on 695 questions. In contrast to the previous Index, the structure of each of the three dimensions is different. For instance, we introduced Sectoral Cooperation” section in Linkage and Sectoral Approximation” section in Approximation to give less weight to each individual sector.

Note: This analysis has been developed within the project of the Foreign Policy Association "Exploiting regional expertise and experience for developing predictable and viable relations with Russia ". The project was implemented in partnership with the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, German Marshall Fund. One of the major goals of the project was to identify the premises, obstacles and options for building a realistic, credible and beneficial Moldovan-Russian partnership for both sides.

The 2011 was a good year for the foreign policy, which, in fact, is the true success story of the Republic of Moldova during the last 3 years. The positive image that our country enjoys within the Eastern Partnership, in Washington, Brussels and other EU capitals, is primarily due to our diplomacy. Nevertheless, the successes of our foreign policy, particularly in relations with the EU are increasingly dependent on internal factors, such as solidarity of the political class, cohesion of the society, pace and quality of reforms, the efficiency of state institutions, etc... From this point of view, we can presume that 2012 will be much more difficult for our diplomats.

The question of the title is undoubtedly challenging for an increasingly indifferent society towards the Transnistrian problem. According to the latest barometer of public opinion (BPO) from November 2011, the resolution of the Transnistrian conflict is No. 1 priority only for 1% of the countrys population and is on the 8th place among the most important problems to be solved in the Republic of Moldova. On the other hand, the consensus and solidarity of political class on the provisions of the special legal status of the Transnistrian region, as defined by the Law No. 173 from 22 July 2005, are no longer certain.

Reflections on the session of the European Council for Foreign Relations Warsaw, November 10, 2011

Each of the 20 years of independence in Moldova has its meaning and role in what happened in the period and, undoubtedly, in what is going to happen in the country and the peoples lives in the future. Info-Prim Neo asked politicians, analysts, experts and personalities from different areas to pronounce on the main events that took place during a certain year and assess their impact on the country.

European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) is an EU foreign policy instrument by which the latter aims to create an area of security and prosperity around it. ENP was launched in 2004 and comprises 16 countries from North Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe, including Moldova. After 7 years of implementation, the ENP is far from achieving its strategic objective. In the last three years, several developments have questioned the efficiency and capabilities of the ENP, both on its Eastern and Southern dimensions. Among negative evolutions we can mention the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008, expansion of authoritarian drifts in most the Eastern Partnership countries, flagrant violation of fundamental human rights in Belarus, the violent suppression of peaceful protests in Chisinau in April 2009, and Minsk in December 2010, the worsening of economic and democratic conditions in states from North Africa and the Middle East, which led eventually to the outbreak of civil war and popular uprisings in Libya, etc... These and other negative trends have determined the EU to start the ENP reevaluation.

On June 10, the Russian ambassador Valeri Kuzmin tried once again the limits of the Chisinau authoritys pragmatic patience. Taking advantage of the reception organized with the occasion of Russias national day, he gave the word to the Transnistrian region representative Vladimir Yastrebchak, presenting him no more, no less, as foreign minister of Transnistria”. To his surprise, but also to ours, the proverbial patience of the Moldovan diplomats has broken”, as they left the reception as a sign of protest. No less surprising was the gesture of American and European diplomats present at the event, that followed the act of dignity and courage of our diplomats.

On June 5, 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russias President Dmitry Medvedev signed the Russian-German Memorandum of Meseberg, under which the EU and Russia are to create a joint Foreign Policy and Security Committee at the level of ministers, with the Transnistrian conflict to become a major subject in the Councils agenda. It will be soon a year of this date, but the committee has not been yet set up. Moscow considers that the ball is in the court of Brussels, which should respond to the proposals submitted by it last summer, concerning the work of the committee proposed by Merkel and Medvedev in Meseberg.

A new round of informal talks on the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict in the 5+2 format (Moldova and Transnistria as conflicting sides, the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine as mediators, and the U.S. and the EU as observers) took place in Vienna on April 4-5. Despite the expectations, the parties dd not manage to reach a compromise as regards the resumption of the official talks in the 5+2 format.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was in Moldova today for a brief visit to encourage reform in the impoverished nation and push for a peaceful settlement of its separatist conflict.Biden, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Moldova since the country declared independence from Soviet rule,

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden shares a laugh with Finnish President Tarja Halonen at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki.