OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2013. Ukraine and France have all the opportunities to increase bilateral trade.

This was announced by Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov at a meeting with senators of upper house of the Parliament of France, members of the France-Ukraine Inter-Parliamentary Group of Friendship on Monday.

"France and the Ukraine are two large European countries. Meanwhile, the potential of our bilateral cooperation, which amounted to about two and a half billion dollars last year, far short of our potential. We have all the opportunities to increase it," Mykola Azarov noted.

He added that the seventh meeting of the intergovernmental commission, (December 2013) would give a new impetus to trade and economic cooperation.

In turn, the head of the France-Ukraine Inter-Parliamentary Group of Friendship Herve Maurey stressed that the French senators pay great attention to improve trade and economic relations with Ukraine. "Trade and economic relations between our countries are very important to us and we try to develop them," he said.

At the same time, Herve Maurey noted that the French Senate supports the signing of the Association Agreement and the FTA between Ukraine and the EU on summit in November in Vilnius. "We unanimously support in the Senate and the National Assembly of France, regardless of our political affiliations, the prospect of signing the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine," he stressed.

Herve Maurey also added that the Parliamentary Group of Friendship will do their best to develop political, economic and cultural ties between the two countries.