Highway being built in Romania toward Ukraine border.

Romania plans to complete by 2026 the construction of the highway connecting Bucharest and Siret, the settlement located near the border with Ukraine.

President of the Suceava County Council Gheorghe Flutur said this during the presentation of the strategy for the General Plan for the development of border infrastructure in Chernivtsi, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Recently, the reconstruction of the Bucharest-Siret-Porubne highway was approved in Romania. The road will be built with European funds. We are obliged to take all measures required to stretch this road to Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Lviv, and on to Poland with access to the motorway toward the Baltic States," Flutur said.

He noted that such a highway connecting the Black Sea with the Baltic and Aegean seas is strategic for NATO. But in order for the currently existing Porubne-Siret checkpoint to allow even more cargo to pass through, it needs to be expanded. Specific steps regarding such expansion were included in the presented strategy for the development of border infrastructure.

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Construction of new checkpoints and modernization of existing ones on the Ukrainian-Romanian border is laid down. In addition, the Romanian side undertakes to develop railway connections to the Romanian-Ukrainian border in order to increase the amount of cargo for cross-border operations between Ukraine and EU countries.

"The Romanian border is one of the most important for us now due to its a huge potential... Considering the situation on the Polish border, we must always have an alternative on how we can use our border checkpoints for exports," said the head of the State Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure, Mustafa Nayem.

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He said that the plan for the development of border infrastructure was agreed at the governmental level in both countries. This is the first such plan among all of Ukraine's western neighbors. Based on the outcome of discussions and presentations, government officials from both countries agreed within the next two weeks to jointly apply to the European Commission for financing of the construction of new checkpoints and modernization of existing ones.

"For its part, the Agency will do its utmost to ensure that this year we have this project finalized and documentation for all checkpoints within Chernivtsi region assessed. Here it will be the checkpoint Bila Krynytsia, and in Zakarpattia region – Bila Tserkva. I hope that already this year we will have concrete plans for the construction of these new checkpoints," added the head of the State Reconstruction Agency.

According to the State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Romania, Ionel Scriosteanu, this is the first strategic document between Ukraine and an EU member state, which concerns the branching of the checkpoint development system. Its main purpose is to facilitate the movement of goods and state border crossing.

As reported, the State Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine received 18 modular bridges from partners.