Romania, Moldova and Ukraine have agreed to keep working together to maintain and improve trade routes for Ukrainian exports and imports, including by strengthening transport links on the Danube River under an EU-backed plan.
The three countries restated their commitment at a high-level meeting on 6 March, the European Commission informed on Friday.
They agreed to continue rolling out the Danube Action Plan 2.0 under the European Commission’s Solidarity Lanes initiative, which was set up to support alternative routes for Ukrainian trade.
Measures discussed include steps to support efficient and safe navigation on the Danube, improve communication between ports in Ukraine, Romania and Moldova, and optimise information sharing to help manage transport operations.
The partners also backed “swift responses” to potential traffic disruption affecting the Black Sea and Danube river routes.
Expanding cooperation to road and rail
The countries said land routes linking Ukraine to Danube ports are vulnerable and agreed to extend the cooperation mechanism beyond waterways to include rail and road connections.
Planned work includes increasing capacity at road border crossing points through enhanced control procedures and updated access infrastructure and equipment.
They also discussed developing “economically viable” options to encourage the use of alternative rail routes, particularly through Moldova.
Beyond contingency planning, the partners said the cooperation would also cover coordinating project planning and investments, with the longer-term goal of integrating Ukrainian and Moldovan transport systems into that of the EU.
