Ukraine has decided to establish an interdepartmental group for cooperation with Transnistria, Ukraine's Special Envoy for the Transnistrian Settlement Viktor Kryzhanivsky told a meeting in Tiraspol with President of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (TMR) Igor Smirnov.
A meeting of the group to be chaired by Stepan Havrysh, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, will be held March 17, UKRINFORM reported.
Kryzhanivsky noted that the group is being established “in order to elaborate a clearer line of the state regarding Transnistria”.
At a meeting with TMR's Foreign Minister Vladimir Yastrebchak, the Ukrainian diplomat said that Ukraine was concerned over the possibility to work out in the 2+1 format (Moldova, Transnistria, Russia) any agreements on the Transnistrian settlement without taking into account Kyiv's opinions.
The diplomat also underlined that Ukraine opposes any parallel, 'separate' negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement.
He stressed that there is a 5+2 format (Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE, as well as the EU and the US), and Ukraine is ready to put its signature under the decisions to be elaborated in this format.
