Today, the office of the OSCE Mission in Chisinau held an in-person meeting of political representatives to address the ban on the entry of vehicles with Pridnestrovian license plates into Ukraine. The meeting brought together the representatives of expert (working) groups on the transport and road development, as well as mediators and observers.
Throughout the meeting, the participants discussed in detail the current crisis situation with regard to access of Pridnestrovian vehicles to international road traffic, in particular, to Ukraine. It was pointed out that it is impossible for Pridnestrovian companies to carry out regular passenger routes to Ukraine or transit through the country, to deliver goods from Ukraine by small-sized cargo vehicles, as well as to use Pridnestrovian reanimobiles for urgent transportation of patients to medical institutions in Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
Considering the ongoing dislogue and the recognized by the Moldovan side objective nature of most of the problems, consisting in the impossibility of registering cargo and passenger transport and reanimobiles in the Vehicle Registration Offices, as well as a low number of registered passenger cars, Vitaly Ignatiev invited his Moldovan counterpart to jointly appeal to Ukraine about the need to reconsider its position and cancel the prohibitive measures. At the same time, the sides admitted the improper functioning of the Vehicle Registration Offices due to various problems that fail to be resolved for a long period of time.
The idea of a joint appeal to Ukraine with a request to suspend the ban was not supported by the Moldovan side.
During the meeting, the PMR Foreign Minister also recalled the initiative sent by the Pridnestrovian side in October 2019 in the form of a draft Protocol Decision on registration of cargo and passenger transport of Pridnestrovie in the Vehicle Registration Offices. However, the Moldovan side stated its unwillingness to start working on this agreement.
Further to the discussion, the driver's license issue was raised. The Pridnestrovian side stressed the undoubted relationship of this issue with the process of border crossing and the participation of Pridnestrovian vehicles in international road traffic, as well as the fact that the requirement of the Republic of Moldova's Border Police that owners of vehicles with neutral numbers must possess Moldovan driver's licenses fundamentally violate the provisions of the Protocol Decision of April 24, 2018.
In addition, the sides, with the participation of field experts, considered some of the issues recorded in the final protocol of the visit to the Vehicle Registration Offices on October 7, 2020. It was indicated that the Republic of Moldova did not fulfill the agreements reached in the spring of this year regarding the re-registration of inherited vehicles.
The sides agreed to hold the next meeting in the same format at the office of the OSCE Mission in Tiraspol on September 20 this year.
