Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, who represented the Government at the most recent round of 5+2 talks on the status of the Transnistria region of Moldova; and what assessment the Government has made of the outcome of those talks.

The last formal round of 5+2 talks on the Transnistria unresolved conflict took place on 2-3 June 2016 in Berlin under the German Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The 5+2 consists of the OSCE as the Chair, Moldova and Transnistria as the parties to the conflict, the Russian Federation and Ukraine as the mediators, and the EU and United States as observers. The UK is not party to the 5+2 process and consequently not represented at meetings of the 5+2, although we follow the process closely.

The UK welcomed the resumption of formal 5+2 talks last year and encouraged the sides to remain committed to the process, to engage constructively, and to deliver on the commitment made in Berlin to engage in dialogue via Working Groups on key issues including telecommunications, legal authentication of university diplomas and ecology.

Austria assumed the Chairmanship of the OSCE in January 2017. There is as yet no date set for the next formal round of 5+2 talks.

The UK remains committed to supporting a comprehensive, peaceful settlement of the Transnistria unresolved conflict based on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova with a special status for the Transnistria region.