OREANDA-NEWS. April 22, 2013. Ukraine and Great Britain have expressed readiness to deepen cooperation both in the political and economic plane. This was announced during a meeting of Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov with Chairman of British Ukrainian Society Lord Risby and Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Great Britain to Ukraine Simon Smith.

In the course of meeting the parties confirmed the need to deepen bilateral high-level cooperation, in particular, it concerned official visits of profile ministries and Prime Ministers in the aftermath. There was discussed preparation of a meeting of ministers of foreign affairs in Great Britain in May of the current year and handed over an invitation to the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry to attend Great Britain. In this context Mykola Azarov emphasized he is an advocate of high-level contacts: “The more high-level contacts there are, the more it will affect the development of our bilateral relations”.  

Moreover, the parties discussed issues of integration of Ukraine with the European Union. Mykola Azarov stressed on implementation by Ukraine of the approved action plan on preparation to signing an Association Agreement and approval of respective draft laws in the Parliament before the Eastern Partnership Summit which is slated to be held in November of 2013, in Vilnius.

In his turn, Chairman of British Ukrainian Society Lord Risby stressed on support of Eurointegration aspirations of Ukraine on the part of Great Britain. “We understand that Ukraine is an integral part of the European family – European countries. And we wish to see you the part of this family. I want to reaffirm it is a common British position,” Lord Risby told to Mykola Azarov.

Besides, the interlocutors expressed readiness to reinforce cooperation in the fields of aviation, energy, economics, notably, increase of volumes of two-way trade turnover and investments.

According to Mykola Azarov, an interesting cooperation line appears aviation branch of Ukraine which has a huge potential in the view of independent production of serial planes. He stressed for now there are many orders for planes, but to realize them a significant flow of investments is necessary. The Prime Minister informed about today’s handing over to the Republic of Cuba the first serial AN-158 aircraft. 

Moreover, Mykola Azarov noted that Ukraine is carrying out an active upgrade of economics, so on the present stage “many English companies could find good applying of their forces in Ukraine”. Speaking about trade turnover, the Premier urged that it “is far from potential of the two states”. “We have every chance to increase trade turnover between the countries,” he said