Tensions around the self-proclaimed republic flared after Moldova introduced new customs regulations on March 3, requiring that all goods bound for Ukraine from Transdnestr have an official Moldovan stamp. Transdnestr has said the regulations amount to an economic blockade of the region.
William Hill, mission head to the country for the world's largest regional security organization, said negotiators had told him there was no consensus either on the agenda of the meeting in 5+2 format - involving Moldova, Transdnestr and Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE, plus U.S. and EU observers - or even on the possibility of holding it.
He said Trandnestr representatives only wanted to discuss a new system for crossing the Moldovan-Ukrainian border and the terms of Transdnestrian enterprises' foreign economic activity.
Hill said the OSCE mission intended to continue diplomatic efforts to resume full-scale settlement talks.
Relations between Moldova and Transdnestr have been tense since March 1992 when Moldova declared independence from the Soviet Union, and Transdnestr in turn proclaimed itself a republic. Russia has had peacekeepers in the area since it intervened in the conflict in July 1992.
