Ukraine and Poland should develop the infrastructure of the common border and improve the quality of its crossing for both individual citizens and carriers, as stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a speech at the Ukrainian-Polish Economic Forum in Odesa.
"We must do everything possible for the border line not to divide our friendly countries, but rather unite our states. It is necessary to develop the infrastructure of the common border, increase its capacity and effectively combat smuggling together," the Ukrainian President said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that both Ukrainians and Poles should have comfortable conditions for mutual travel, in particular, the railway should connect more and more Ukrainian and Polish cities.
The President reminded that today there are eight vehicle checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border, which are not enough.
"We are working closely with our partners to increase the number of new checkpoints and the capacity of existing checkpoints," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Also, according to him, work is underway to improve the condition of roads to checkpoints on the Ukrainian side.
"It's our homework. The implementation of the agreement between our governments on a loan of 100 million euros on the terms of tied assistance opens up new opportunities here,” the President of Ukraine said.
"We want carriers and travelers to feel no difference in the near future when entering the roads of our Ukraine from Poland," he added.
Separately, the Head of State drew attention to another problem faced by Ukrainian carriers. This is an insufficient number of permits to drive through Poland in the mode of international road haulage. According to him, this issue was discussed in detail during yesterday's Ukrainian-Polish talks.
"I believe we will make progress on this in the near future. Free competition is one of the fundamental principles of the free market in Europe, which we are still striving for. I personally asked the President of the Republic of Poland, Polish government and Polish carriers not to be wary of Ukrainians as rivals. We are friends and reliable partners both for Poland and for all other countries of the European Union," Volodymyr Zelenskyy summed up.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, who also took part in the Ukrainian-Polish economic forum in Odesa, assured that the Polish party would fulfill all its obligations for Ukraine to receive the necessary permits.
He noted that Ukraine and Poland should continue to implement joint logistics projects. Andrzej Duda noted that one of such projects could be the development of the infrastructure of the Shehyni-Medyka checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Polish border.
