Moldova and the Conflict in Transnistria

Released by the U.S. Mission to the OSCE

(As delivered)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I should like to thank the distinguished Ambassador of Moldova for the important information that she has provided to the Permanent Council today. I should also like to take this opportunity to reiterate the concerns that have led the United States to join the European Union in applying travel restrictions on the leadership of the breakaway Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.

Mr. Chairman, we share with many of our colleagues around this table a growing impatience with the intransigence of Transnistria's secessionist leadership -- a leadership which has for years blocked progress towards a political settlement of the conflict in Transnistria -- and its intransigences particularly in negotiations mediated by Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE Mission in Moldova. The United States once again urges all participating States to make every effort to support the travel restrictions and to take appropriate measures of their own to make clear to the Transnistrian regime that the international community will no longer tolerate its continued obstruction of an early political settlement.

In closing Mr. Chairman, I should also like to reiterate the full support of the United States for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova. Thank you.