Moldovan Government Preparing to Commission an Airfield in Tiraspol?

Dorin Mocanu Ion Chicu wants to eliminate ‘monopolistic features’ in the field of aviation infrastructure by opening new airports in Moldova At the end of November, the Moldovan media reported news that went unreasonably unnoticed. This was a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Ion Chicu on identifying opportunities for the development of the country’s airport infrastructure. It was attended by the ministers of economy and defense, as well as a group of specialized experts. According to the press release, the head of the Cabinet noted that the only international airport in Moldova is a ‘monopolistic feature’, and the development of new international airports will create environment for competitiveness, lower prices for tickets and aviation services. Following the meeting, the Prime Minister instructed to create a working group to conduct a feasibility study. Despite that this issue seemed ordinary to many, being focused on the development of aviation infrastructure in the north and south of the country, some experts saw quite obvious political implication in such a socio-economic initiative. Namely, an attempt to create conditions for the reactivation of the military airfield in Tiraspol under the pretext of organizing international passenger air transportation. As you know, this issue has been repeatedly raised in the negotiation process, and multiple proposals and mechanisms for flights to and from Tiraspol were leaked to the press. As the main idea, the left-bank authorities raised the question of the need to convert this military facility into a civilian airport. According to the Tiraspol officials, this supposedly should take all issues of security and possible risks, primarily for Moldova itself, off the table. It is not known how seriously such initiatives were taken in Chisinau. However, in 2017, with several breakthrough decisions in the Transdniestrian settlement, the spokesperson of the then ruling Democratic Party of Moldova, Vitalie Gamurari, did not rule out the possibility of discussing the work of the Tiraspol airport. As the representative of the PDM said, Chisinau has never tried to blockade Tiraspol, but “is guided from the worldwide recognized rules of the game”. Meanwhile, in the context of Moscow’s actualization of the topic of ammunition disposal in Cobasna and the need to attract additional physical resources for this, the issue of opening new airports in Moldova gets a completely different tone. Taking this at the level of the Moldovan government immediately after Ion Chicu’s visit to Moscow is hardly a coincidence. There is reason to believe that one of the terms for the Russian credit line may just be the commissioning of the Tiraspol airfield. Moreover, it will serve two purposes simultaneously: supplying the Russian peacekeeping contingent, and making the first practical steps to dispose of old ammunition from Cobasna. It is obvious that for the Kremlin, with all the uncertain prospects of Chicu’s government, the problem of supplying the operational group of Russian forces in the Republic of Moldova can become an important tactical victory. However, the described scenario can meet serious opposition of Ukraine. Any military-infrastructural moves around Transdniestria are a strategic challenge for Kyiv in the context of the country’s defense, especially in the south-west regions, which allows cutting off mainland Ukraine from the Black Sea. That’s evidenced by the regular statements of the Ukrainian generals that it’s not so bad to have 1500 Russian troops in Tiraspol, as its tactical tasks to protect military strategic facilities, including an airfield capable of accommodating large aircraft. At the current stage, it is difficult to assess the real prospect of commissioning the Tiraspol airfield, since the issue disturbs the regional security balance. By the way, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu spoke about this during a recent meeting with his Moldovan counterpart. According to him, the Transdniestrian conflict directly interests Bucharest, in terms of security of both Romania, the European Union and NATO. This state of affairs once again convinces that even some local at first glance elements of the conflict settlement are directly related to the broad international context.