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The flags of Pridnestrovie and Abkhazia flying next to each other in Tiraspol, where Abkhazia recently opened an embassy

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Three de facto independent sovereign states are seeking closer collaboration and international integration as they help each other achieve diplomatic recognition of their statehood. Pridnestrovie, South Ossetia and Abkhazia - all located on the post-Soviet space - declared independence following the fall of Communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union. Although their independence has not been recognized by the United Nations, they operate as de facto independent countries with their own flags, constitutions, defined borders, armies and law enforcement, currencies, and national anthems.

For the most part, they also have democratically elected governments and multi-party political systems, with Abkhazia and Pridnestrovie leading in democratic development and South Ossetia still lagging behind.

During a meeting Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the three republics agreed to consolidate their efforts to resolve their protracted conflicts with metropolitan states Moldova and Georgia, both of whom lay claim to the territories of these states and have earlier gone to war over them.

The largest country in the region, Russia, has supported the regions' bids for independence, and Russian forces help with peacekeepers, participating amonside other countries with providing troops to oversee cease-fires in the conflict zones as part of international peacekeeping forces since the bloody conflicts that followed the independence declarations.

Community for Democracy and Human Rights

In June of 2006, the presidents of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Pridnestrovie - Sergey Bagapsh, Eduard Kokoity and Igor Smirnov - founded the Community for Democracy and Human Rights, a joint international effort to speak with a common voice in the United Nations and other international venues where the rights of self-determination are often neglected.

Two months ago, the organization launched a website at the Internet domain www.community-dpr.org [1] with information about its member states and their desire for closer international relations with the world community. The website is part of a public diplomacy effort which also involves a common information and news agency to cover the situation in the new and emerging countries. The agency will have bureaus in all three of the republics' capitals.

Between them, the three republics are exchanging diplomatic representatives and opening ties for trade and people-to-people collaboration. Last December, Abkhazia opened an embassy in Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie's capital. In return, Pridnestrovie opened a diplomatic representation in Abkhazia, and is currently planning more such offices abroad.

The parties agreed to hold a meeting in Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, in the near future. Pridnestrovie's Foreign Minister Valery Litskai said that further steps will depend on a decision that will be made on the status of Kosovo, a separatist region in Serbia with a predominantly Albanian population.

New York based analyst Michael Averko and a number of other experts pointed out earlier that Pridnestrovie's legal and historical case for independence is significantly stronger than that of Kosovo. Unlike Kosovo, which has traditionally been a part of Serbia, Pridnestrovie was never a historical part of an independent Moldova. In World War II, the two sides were joined together by force under Stalin, as the result of a secret part of the illegal Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Hitler. Moldova later renounced this move as "null and void" and declared its own independence on the basis of the illegality of the forced merger with Pridnestrovie.

Alternately known under names such as Transdniester, Transnistria and Transdnestr, the new and emerging country is home to 555,000 people, twice the number of citizens of Iceland and approximately the same amount of people who live in Montenegro, the latest new country to declare independence and join the United Nations in 2006. (With information from RIA Novosti)

See also:
» United Nations petitioned by Pridnestrovie, two other unrecognized countries [2]
» Transdniester seeks international recognition [3]

On the web:
» Community for Democracy and Human Rights [4] (official website)