OREANDA-NEWS. January 26, 2011. President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan have signed a Joint Declaration on Establishment of Strategic High Level Council between Ukraine and Turkey.

The document is intended to formalize elevation of relations between Ukraine and Turkey to the level of strategic partnership and establish mechanisms for implementing the new format of relations – the Strategic High Level Council.

The Strategic Council will be developing proposals on strategy and main directions of relations between Ukraine and Turkey, and coordinate the implementation of important projects in the framework of cooperation in political, trade-economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

The President of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Turkey will be joint chairs of the Council. Its meetings will be held annually in Ukraine and Turkey by turn.

Joint Strategic Planning Group, chaired by Foreign Ministers of the parties, will be established within the Council to discuss key issues of bilateral cooperation and meeting at least once a year.

Also, in the presence of Viktor Yanukovych and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukraine and Turkey have signed a number of bilateral documents:

Intergovernmental Agreement on organization of direct freight rail-ferry service between Ukraine and Turkey.

Agreement on Cooperation between the Ukrainian national news agency Ukrinform and the Turkish state news agency Anadolu Ajansi

Program of implementation of the Memorandum of Intent on cooperation in the area of technical regulation, standardization, metrology, conformity assessment and consumer protection between the Governments for 2011-2012

Program of Cooperation between the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine and the Atomic Energy Agency of Turkey for 2011-2012

Memorandum of Understanding on Energy between the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey.