CHISINAU. April 2 (Interfax) - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) welcomes an agreement between Chisinau and Tiraspol on resuming railroad services through Transdniestria, said Ambassador Erwan Fouere, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian settlement process.
"I welcome the agreement to restore full railway services for people and freight," Fouere said in a statement on Friday.
"People on both sides of the river and local businesses will benefit, and I commend the parties for their constructive and problem-solving approach to issues of mutual concern," he said.
"The progress we have seen here is encouraging as we have just resumed official talks in the settlement process, and I am looking forward to my meetings in Chisinau and Tiraspol next week," Fouere said.
The statement says also that Fouere would be in the region from April 2 to 5 and will have meetings in Kyiv, Odessa, Tiraspol and Chisinau.
On April 2, Fouere will meet in Kyiv with Ukraine's Special Representative for the Transdniestrian Settlement Igor Kharchenko.
On April 3, he will be in Odessa to meet Udo Burkholder, the head of the EU Border Assistance Mission to Ukraine and Moldova, and will then travel by train to Tiraspol.
On April 4, Fouere will meet with the Transdniestrian leadership and co-chairs of the joint working groups on confidence-building measures and civil society representatives.
On April 5, he will be in Chisinau for meetings with the Moldovan authorities and working group co-chairs.
It was reported earlier that Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat and Transdniestrian leader Eugen Sevciuc signed an agreement on Friday to resume full-scale rail traffic through Transdniestria in 30 days.
Rail traffic through Transdniestria was suspended in 2006 because of disagreements between Tiraspol and Chisinau.
Passenger train service between Chisinau and Odessa through Transdniestria was suspended in 2004 and was resumed only in 2010. Only one of the three trains currently shuttling between Moscow and Chisinau passes through Tiraspol, and all the other passenger and freight trains go through the north of Moldova, making a detour of about 450 kilometers.