Today, on July 21, 2016, the Kishinev office of the OSCE Mission hosted a regular meeting of the expert (working) groups of the sides on railway transport and communication with the participation of representatives of the customs authorities of Pridnestrovie and the Republic of Moldova.
The meeting was initiated by the Pridnestrovian side due to the critical situation at the petroleum market of Pridnestrovie that resulted from blocking of these goods deliveries in Pridnestrovie by the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, as well as for the reason that the Moldovan side has been avoiding the previously agreed meeting of authorized experts at the Bendery-2 railway station for the last one and a half months.
As said in the statement of the Government of the PMR, movement of imported goods using Kuchurgan-export and Slobodka-export stations to Pridnestrovie is blocked currently (both coming from Ukraine and in transit through Ukraine). In this regard, we cannot supply some goods to Pridnestrovie, including fuels and lubricants.
Whereas, the initiative of the Pridnestrovian side to organize a meeting of representatives of the customs authorities and administrations of railways of Pridnestrovie and the Republic of Moldova at the Bendery-2 railway station was caused by the systematic violation by the Moldovan side of agreements on the full-scale resumption of freight railway communication through Pridnestrovie, achieved in 2012.
During the meeting, the Pridnestrovian side urged the participants to return to logistic schemes of cargos delivery from/through the territory of Ukraine, agreed by the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Pridnestrovie in March and June 2012, which have been optimal for rail operators and economic agents of Pridnestrovie and the Republic of Moldova.
In turn, the delegation of the Republic of Moldova stated that the agreements following the Protocol Decision on the Principles of the Resumption of a Full-Scale Freight Railway Communication through the Territory of Pridnestrovie of 30 March 2012, have not been implemented into domestic Moldovan law, and therefore cannot be fully executed by the Moldovan side.
At the same time it was supposed to start a full-fledged discussion on the draft Additional Protocol, Technology and Technological Scheme to the Protocol Decision of 30 March 2012, which the Pridnestrovian side presented back 26 February 2016. The adoption and implementation of these documents would allow to construct a mutually acceptable scheme of importing goods for domestic consumption in Pridnestrovie.
Instead, the Moldovan experts preconditioned the resumption of fuel and lubricants delivery through railway crossing points on the border of Pridnestrovie and Ukraine. Among others there are prerequisites that importers of Pridnestrovie should obtain all duplicate permits for importing fuel and lubricants in the Republic of Moldova, the existing agreements between the customs authorities of the parties on interaction in joint customs control areas at the Bendery-2 and Rybnitsa stations should be reviewed and additional infrastructure facilities at these railway stations should be constructed.
The Pridnestrovian side considers laying of these conditions unacceptable and contrary to the spirit and letter of the agreements on the principles of the resumption of a full-scale freight railway communication through the territory of Pridnestrovie of 30 March 2012.
Since the extension of the current problematic situation threatens Pridnestrovie with major fuel and energy crisis and a sliding of Pridnestrovie and the Republic of Moldova into a confrontation on the railway, the Pridnestrovian side reiterated its call upon the mediators and observers to study the initiative on organizing an emergency meeting of the “Permanent Conference...” in Tiraspol in the near future in order to discuss and to find early solutions to the existing problem.
