British Ambassador visits Transdniestria; London conference planned

A meeting with HM Ambassador John Beyer took place in the Parliament building (shown) in Tiraspol, the capital of Pridnestrovie

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - During an official visit to Tiraspol, the capital of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica (PMR), British Ambassador John Beyer met with opposition party leader and current Parliamentary Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk to discussed the situation in Pridnestrovie, also known informally as Transdniestria.

It was the first visit John Beyer to Transdniestria’s Parliament, the parliamentary press service reported. John Beyer is Her Majesty's Ambassador to Moldova and, by extension, thus also to the currently unrecognized state of Transdniestria.

During the meeting with Yevgeny Shevchuk, the two discussed the current legal situation of Transdniestria and the prospects for a normalization of relations between Transdniestria and its neighbor Moldova which after nearly 18 years of Transdniestrian 'de facto' independence still maintains a theoretical claim on the territory.

British Ambassador John Beyer met with Transdniestria's legislature during an official visit to Tiraspol. (Photo: FCO)

The official visit by the British Ambassador to Tiraspol comes one week before Transdniestria's Parliamentary Speaker addresses a conference in London which will focus on the same topics.

Shevchuk is able to travel to London after a visa ban against Shevchuk, which the EU had earlier imposed at Moldova's prompting, was lifted earlier this year. He is one of the few civic leaders in Transdniestria who can freely travel to the West and present the views held by a majority of the population of the area.

London conference dedicated to Transdniestria

Yevgeny Shevchuk, 39, is preparing for a trip to London where he will be a keynote speaker at a gathering of foreign policy experts who'll analyze the prospects for Transdniestria's independence and will consider any alternatives to independence. The conference, which will be held on Wednesday 7 May 2008, is called "Transdniestria: Is a Solution in Sight?"

Better late than never: Two years after he was first invited, Yevgeny Shevchuk finally gets a chance to speak at London's Chatham House. A previous travel ban had prevented his earlier trip.

It is a closed special invitation event which is organized by London's Chatham House, formally known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, which is one of the world's leading institutes for the debate and analysis of international issues. The experts' roundtable will be addressed by Yevgeny Shevchuk, who was originally invited to a similar event two years ago, and who as Parliamentary Speaker has been a key figure in promoting Transdniestria's path towards democratic reform and internationally recognized independence.

On 24 May 2006 Chatham House organized a seminar called "Transnistria: Views from both Sides." The organizers had invited opposition politicians from both sides of the Dniester. But only the Moldovan representatives could go. The leading representative from Pridnestrovie, Parliamentary Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk, was barred from a EU visa. The young and charismatic pro-democracy politician's name was included in the list of leaders banned from traveling abroad by the European Union and the United States, despite the fact that he represents the most viable opposition to PMR's current President Igor Smirnov.

Chatham House (Britain's Royal Institute of International Affairs) held its conference nevertheless, but real dialogue and consensus seeking was impossible. Said a participant affiliated with the organization: "Instead of what was billed as Views from both Sides, EU's misplaced travel ban caused it to become a rather onesided affair."

See also:
» British diplomats hear Transdniester's side from Parliament, civil society
» British Embassy conference calls PMR press "independent" and "relatively free"