MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia hopes it will be possible to resume formal talks on the Transnistrian conflict settlement in the 5 + 2 format this year, Russian Foreign Ministry Special Envoy Sergei Gubarev said Thursday.
The 5+2 format encompasses Russia, Moldova, Transnistria, Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and observers from the European Union and the United States. Previous talks on settling the Transnistria dispute scheduled to take place in September 2015 were postponed, becoming the third canceled meeting in the 5+2 format. The last such meeting was held in mid-2014.
"We would like to believe that at least the formal negotiations, official meetings will resume this year," Gubarev stated during a video conference at the Rossiya Segodnya press center in Moscow.
The talks resumption is the immediate task of the negotiating sides, he stressed.
Transnistria, a strip of land between Moldova and Ukraine, broke away from the Soviet republic of Moldova in the 1990s. Most of its population are Russian and Ukrainian nationals.
