​ MOLDOVAN PREMIER AND UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT TO OPEN JOINT BORDER CONTROL FACILITY AT CUCIURGAN

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip and President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will officially open the joint border control station at Cuciurgan/Pervomaisk later on Monday.

The Cuciurgan border-crossing station is situated on the strategic Chisinau-Odessa highway. It has thus become the 5th such station, where Moldova and Ukraine have organized their joint border and customs control of passengers, motor vehicles and cargoes crossing the common border on the basis of a corresponding inter-governmental agreement. This project is supported by the European Union, including by means of the EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM).

The joint border control at Cuciurgan is going to be carried out in two stages. At the first stage to last about 6 months, the officers of the Moldovan Customs Service and of Border Police will be controlling jointly with Ukrainian colleagues only the exports of goods from the Transnistrian region.

At the second phase, the two countries will begin controlling jointly both export and import flows as well as the movement of motor vehicles and persons.

The joint control is called to simplify the movement of commodities, motor vehicles and persons by using the principle of “one stop – one window”, in particular by means of carrying out necessary customs procedures with goods from the Transnistrian region, including excisable goods, in order to save time and transportation expenditures, as well as by a selective control of motor vehicles and goods.

The authorities of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic are categorically against such “Moldovan control on our border”, regarding this to be “a new spiral of economic blockade against Transnistria”. Their position is backed by Moscow. On July 7, the Russian State Duma adopted a Statement calling on Chisinau and Kiev to give up “the practice of pressing on Transnistria”.

Infotag’s dossier: Initially, the joint border control at Cuciurgan was to be started on June 1, 2017, but was suspended “for technical reasons”. The earlier-started 4 joint control facilities are Briceni-Rossoshany, Criva-Mamaliga, Larga-Kelmentsy, and Giurgiulesti-Reni.