Is there a border between Moldova and Romania?

Yes. Moldova and Romania share a land border of roughly 680 kilometres. It follows the Prut river for almost its entire length, from the point where the borders of Moldova, Romania and Ukraine meet in the north to the Danube in the south. Since Romania joined the European Union in 2007, it has also been an external border of the EU.

How long is it?

Published figures differ slightly depending on the source and the method of measurement:

• The CIA World Factbook gives Moldova's land boundaries as 1,885 km in total, of which 683 km with Romania and 1,202 km with Ukraine.
• The Romanian Statistical Yearbook gives a figure of about 681 km, including a few hundred metres along the Danube.

Older editions of the Factbook gave much shorter figures for both of Moldova's borders; the differences reflect changes in measurement rather than any change in the border itself. For general purposes, "about 680 km" is accurate.

Where does it run?

The border is almost entirely a river boundary. In the north, it begins at the tripoint with Ukraine near the Moldovan village of Criva, in Briceni district, facing the Ukrainian village of Mamalyha. From there it follows the Prut river south, past the Costești–Stânca reservoir and the cities of Ungheni and, on the Romanian side, the area around Iași, through the lowlands of southern Moldova. In the far south, it reaches the confluence of the Prut with the Danube near Giurgiulești, Moldova's short stretch of Danube shoreline and the site of its only port with access to the Black Sea by river. Moldova itself has no sea coast.

Because it follows a meandering river, the border is much longer than the straight-line distance between its ends, and its line is defined by the river's course, which is why bridges and dams are the natural crossing points.

Main crossing points

The main road and rail crossings, from north to south, include:

Opening hours, the categories of traffic allowed and waiting times vary by crossing and season. The border police of both countries publish current information, including waiting times, before travel.

A border with history

The territory between the Prut and the Dniester, historically part of the Principality of Moldavia, has changed hands several times: it was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812, united with Romania in 1918, and incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 and again after the Second World War. Moldova became independent in 1991. Romanian is the official language of Moldova, and close cultural ties across the Prut mean that the border is crossed daily by large numbers of people.

This short note was written to answer a factual question about the border. It is independent of the former blog that used this address.