The Pridnestrovian Foreign Ministry informs that the President of the PMR Vadim Krasnoselsky and Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Pavel Filip signed (without meeting) Additional Protocol to the Protocol Decision “On the principles of resumption of a full-scale freight railway communication through the territory of Pridnestrovie” of 30 March 2012. In accordance with this document the Protocol Decision was extended until the end of the coming year.
The issue of prolongation of the Protocol Decision was discussed on 27 December in the OSCE Mission office in Kishinev at the meeting of the expert (working) groups on railway transport and communication. During the meeting the parties agreed on the need to preserve the freight railway traffic through the Pridnestrovian territory in order to create favorable conditions for freight delivery and foreign trade.
At the same time during the meeting the Pridnestrovian side expressed concern over the fact that the Moldovan Government has not yet decided on the import of petroleum products via the northern branch through the “Slobodka-Kolbasna” border crossing on the Ukrainian-Pridnestrovian border. It should be emphasized that during the meeting authorized representatives of Ukraine expressed their interest in providing transportation of petroleum products through that border crossing and confirmed their readiness to contribute to the solution of this issue in every possible way.
At the meeting members of the expert group from Pridnestrovie stressed the need for further upgrade of several provisions of the Protocol Decision, in order to create an optimal, mutually acceptable mechanism for import of freights in the PMR for domestic consumption. The Pridnestrovian side believes that such mechanism should be based on the proposals of Pridnestrovie, which were passed to Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Cord Meier-Klodt on September 27 this year, and provide for the products import in Pridnestrovie using a rolling stock of Pridnestrovian railways without registration by the customs authorities of Moldova.
It is expected that taking into account the extension of the Protocol Decision the sides will intensify their work towards the resolution of all existing problematic aspects in regards to the railway communication in the coming year.
