OREANDA-NEWS. On April 09, 2008 Ukraine and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement on promotion and mutual protection of investments and agreed to enhance cooperation in the air space, aircraft, banking and maritime traffic areas, reported the Official website www.kmu.gov.ua.

The signing ceremony took place in Riyadh following a meeting of the Intergovernmental Bilateral Commission on Trade-Economic and Science-Technical Cooperation.

"The commission has achieved very strong results," Ukraine's First Vice Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov said.

He also informed that the parties initialed a merchant shipping agreement and arranged to strengthen air space cooperation.

The First Vice Prime Minister also said that Ukrsibbank agreed on cooperation in the banking area with Saudi Arabia's leading banks.

Apart from this, Turchynov met King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, and the talk, according to Oleksandr Turchynov, was "fair and good". He said that the Saudi Arabia's King was sympathetic about the need to open Saudi Arabia's Embassy in Ukraine.