The President received Acting Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatiev. The working meeting was also attended by Director of the state unitary enterprise “Pridnestrovian Railway” Oleg Kulbikov.
Head of state was informed that the scheme of movement of goods imported into Pridnestrovie by railway will be changed from January 1, 2016 by the decision of the Ukrainian and Moldovan sides.
“We learned that the meeting between railway representatives of Moldova and Ukraine took place on December 10-11, during which they signed a corresponding protocol decision. Pursuant to the protocol decision the scheme of delivery of cargo imported to Pridnestrovie changes. The station “Slobodka-export” and “Kuchurgan-export” are excluded from this scheme”, - informed the Acting Foreign Minister of the PMR.
As explained by Director of the state unitary enterprise “Pridnestrovian Railway” Oleg Kulbikov, “under the new scheme it is proposed to transport cargo not targetedly, through the border station in Rybnitsa, Tiraspol, and Bendery, but it is proposed to deliver goods through the south to the station Bendery-2, the jurisdiction of the Moldovan Railway”. “It is proposed to make customs clearance there, and then, if necessary, the economic agent will have to return these rail cars in Tiraspol and Bendery,” - said Oleg Kulbikov.
It was stressed at the meeting that this unilateral decision “will not be painless for the Pridnestrovian importing enterprises”. According to experts, the annual total costs connected with the expenses of Pridnestrovian economic agents as a result of rerouting rail freight traffic will amount to more than US $ 4 million. The Pridnestrovian Railway director said that the rail route will lengthen, and an increase in the freight charge will be almost double.
“This situation actually puts Pridnestrovie in a very difficult economic situation, eliminates any possibility of the Pridnestrovian railway to deliver goods by our rolling stock. This will lead to serious losses, economic and logistic costs,”- said Vitaly Ignatiev.
During the meeting the President expressed his concern at the fact that the Moldovan and Ukrainian sides’ decision was made outside the negotiation process, without consulting with Pridnestrovie.
“We conducted a dialogue on this issue, two meetings were held in November, where Pridnestrovie articulated the problem and asked not to apply unilateral measures. Despite this, Moldova and Ukraine actually violated by its unilateral decision the agreements of negotiation process, the principle of conducting a dialogue,” - said Acting Foreign Minister of the PMR speaking to the journalists.
Vitaly Ignatiev said that the Pridnestrovian side intends to appeal to the participants of the “5+2” format with a request to refrain from any unilateral action and cancel this negative decision that directly affects the interests of Pridnestrovian economic agents, the income of state enterprises, the Pridnestrovian railway.
During the meeting, the President of the PMR instructed to use the necessary political and diplomatic tools to prevent an escalation of tensions, including an appeal to the 5+2 participants.
Source: http://president.gospmr.ru/ru/news/prezident-prinyal-io-ministra-inostra...
