Moldova, Ukraine to sign agreement on joint control at border checkpoints

Chisinau, 24 May /MOLDPRES/ - The cabinet of ministers today approved a decision on the signing of the Agreement with Ukraine on joint control of persons, transport means and goods at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border checkpoints.  

The document is meant to replace an agreement between the two countries on organization of joint control, signed on 11 March 1997.

The conclusion of the agreement “will essentially contribute to the development and strengthening of the cooperation relations between the institutions with powers at border, in the interest and to the advantage of both states, in order to ensure the security of the state border between Moldova and Ukraine,” the Interior Ministry said. The establishment of the joint control is provided for in the law on the state border of Moldova and is a requirement for the enforcement of the Association Agreement with EU.   

The agreement is planned to be signed in Soroca on 5 June 2017, at a meeting of the leaders of the border authorities.

Moldova and Ukraine lately have been discussing the setting of joint control at the Moldovan-Ukrainian state border at the Kuchurgan border checkpoint, on the Transnistrian segment. Yet, Tiraspol opposes this vehemently. “This bilateral cooperation between Moldova and Ukraine will help simplify the procedures of border control of people and of customs clearance of goods, streamlining the road traffic, removing the negative phenomena present at the border,” Deputy Prime Minister Gheorghe Balan has earlier said. On the other hand, the head of the interior department of the breakaway Transnistrian republic, Vitaly Ignatyev, said that he did not rule out the fact that Transnistria would appeal to Russia with a request to deploy Russian representatives as force able to ensure security at the border checkpoints.   

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor A. Raileanu)