Moldova’s Railways and the similar organization of the Transnistrian region will soon sign an agreement of cooperation in railway communications. The company’s director Iurii Topala has told IPN that the tariffs, conditions of transporting goods and method of cooperation between the two enterprises are yet to be agreed.

Iurii Topala said the Moldovan side has to make concessions in order to reach an agreement and the negotiations are close to an end. The Moldovan side insists on the regulation of prices because until now the Transnistrian side levied taxes that were three-four times higher than those charged by the Moldovan side.

According to the director of Moldova’s Railways, until now the goods coming from Ukraine entered the Transnistrian region without the Moldovan side knowing this. “I will insist that all the freight transported by train should go to destination through Moldovan customs posts,” stated Iurii Topala.

The protocol agreement that regulates the railway sector, signed in 2012 by the then Transnistrian leader Yevgheny Shevchuk and Prime Minister Vlad Filat, expired at the end of 2016 and was extended for another half a year. The so-called minister of foreign affairs of Transnistria Vitaliy Ignatiev said recently the signing of a new document will help optimize the mechanism for importing and exporting goods and for using the railway resources.