Moldova will restart talks with its renegade province Transnistria after two years of frozen negotiations, a senior Moldovan official told the Infotag news agency on Monday, according to DPA. Russian-speaking Transnistria seceded from Romanian-speaking Moldova after a civil war ending in 1992. No nation in the world has recognised Transnistria's de facto independence. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov agreed to meet face to face in the "near future," as a result of a recent series of telephone discussions between the two, an member of Voronin's foreign affairs advisory group said. The meeting, were it to take place, would end two years of stalled reunification negotiations between the two sides, halted in 2006 after the Transnistrian delegation walked out of talks, in response to a Moldovan ban of Transnistria-registered goods. Voronin recently proposed substantial changes to Moldova's constitution which, if put into effect, would give Transnistria wide rights of self-rule in exchange for a return to Moldovan control. Currently the two sides technically are still at war, although the unofficial border between Transnistria and Moldova is generally peaceful, and policed by Russian peacekeepers. Representatives from Moldova's and Transnistria's governments already were hammering out details for the planned talks, according to the report. A key topic of the planned agenda would be a general treaty ending the status of war between the two sides, and spelling out a road map for Transnistrian return to Moldovan control, the report said, citing a Transnistrian official. Top negotiator for Moldova in the planning was reportedly Reintegration Minister Vasily Shova, and for Transnistria acting Prime Minister Vasily Litskay. Moldova's Transnistria region is one of Europe's oldest frozen conflicts. The province is one of the continent's poorest regions and, according to Interpol, a centre for smuggling and other trans-national crime.
