Moldova's deputy premier visits Moldovan-Ukrainian border checkpoint

Chisinau, 25 February /MOLDPRES/ - Deputy Prime Minister Gheorghe Balan on 24 February paid a fact-collecting visit to the Moldovan-Ukrainian border checkpoint Kuchurgan-Pervomaysk (placed in Ukraine). Participating in the visit were representatives of the Foreign and European Integration Ministry, State Chancellery’s reintegration policies bureau, Interior Ministry’s Border Police Department, Customs Service of Moldova.       

The Ukrainian side was represented by Ukraine’s Ambassador to Moldova Ivan Gnatishin, the deputy governor of the Odessa region, representatives of the leadership of the State Border Guard Service and State Fiscal Service.  

The concerned trip was aimed at familiarizing the Moldovan delegation with the way the aforementioned checkpoint is working, the current infrastructure, services provided, staff involved, as well as at coordinating with the Ukrainian side certain organizational aspects of starting the joint control, in order to carry out the agreements reached at an official meeting between Prime Minister Pavel Filip, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymir Groysman, held in Kiev on 13 February 2017, as well as to implement the provisions of the protocol “On organization of joint control at the Moldovan-Ukrainian international border checkpoint Pervomaysk-Kuchurgan,” signed on 4 November 2015 at the level of the leadership of the customs and border institutions on behalf of Kiev and Chisinau.      

At the working visit, Deputy Prime Minister Gheorghe Balan informed about the existence of a clear-cut political will of the Moldovan government to establish joint control at the border checkpoint Pervomaysk-Kuchurgan till the fourth quarter of 2017, with dividing the process in successive stages (information campaigns, phase of monitoring and subsequently the one of providing services). Balan reiterated the Moldovan side’s willingness to contribute with the needed resources and equipment, to mobilize the support of international partners and EU to this end, as well as to continue, after the functionality of the concerned checkpoint is ensured, the replication of this model at the other border checkpoints, placed on the central (Transnistrian) segment of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. 

For its part, the Ukrainian delegation confirmed the presence of a similar political will on behalf of the Kiev authorities as well. It also highlighted full openness to fulfill the task set, stressed the need to concomitantly give the final touches to procedures of demarking the entire Moldovan-Ukrainian border, by synchronizing the measures necessary to be taken, proper boosting the processes of efficient settlement of problems of bilateral interest.   

The technical aspects of introducing the joint control are to be discussed and agreed upon within the dialogue platforms of the sides’ customs and border services, by ensuring a normative, technological and infrastructural basis of the activities scheduled. 

In the first quarter of 2017, the Moldovan side, in cooperation with the Ukrainian one and with the involvement of relevant foreign partners, will start information campaigns to communicate the benefits of the joint control for the residents and economic agents from Ukraine and Moldova, including the residents from the Transnistrian region.