Covid-19 pandemic – a new challenge for the national security of the Republic of Moldova on the transnistrian conflict settlement dimension

Abstract

Ensuring national security of the Republic of Moldova on the Transnistrian conflict settlement dimension during the COVID-19 global pandemic determined the need to create and implement a new paradigm for tackling the settlement process of the conflict in the Eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova in the context of reshaping the geopolitical architecture of the security environment in the South-East Europe. The lack of substantial results of the talks concerning the identification of feasible and sustainable solutions for the Transnistrian conflict is due to Moldovan authorities’ mistaken vision concerning the real interests of the actors involved in these talks that diff er from the preferences referred to in the offi cial rhetoric. COVID-19 pandemic tempered the actions of all political actors involved in the „5+2” format negotiation process that have been limited only to some sporadic declarations on the need to settle the confl ict from the Eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova and on the importance to carry out the provisions of the initiative to enhance the confi dence-building measures between the two banks of the Nistru river, integrated in the „small steps” policy, actions that do not produced tangible results on the Transnistrian confl ict settlement. The research of the issue of the Transnistrian confl ict settlement process in the condition of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought about the decrease of the level of stability in the security area, emphasizes the reduced geopolitical potential of the Republic of Moldova in the current negotiation format that defi nes the insuffi cient level of the institutional capacity of the national security system to ensure the territorial integrity jeopardized by the geopolitical confl ict in the Eastern districts.