OREANDA-NEWS President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko discussed the whole spectrum of topical issue of interaction between the two states at both bilateral and multilateral levels.

“We have lots of common interests and projects. Our cooperation is extremely efficient, useful and mutually beneficial,” the Head of State emphasized. According to him, the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus have a political will and persistent desire to implement these interests for the sake of prosperity of the two peoples and strengthening of independence of the two countries.

In the course of the meeting, the parties have discussed economic interaction. “I am pleased to inform that the trade turnover between Ukraine and Belarus has increased by 26% in comparison with the last year,” the President informed reminding that Belarus is the fourth trade partner for Ukraine, and Ukraine is the second trade partner for Belarus.

The two Presidents noted the prospect of increasing the trade turnover between the two countries. “We see real prospects of growth. We have set a task to achieve the figure of 5 billion dollars in our mutual trade turnover. This means that the work over the initiated projects is fruitful and the chosen vectors are correct and mutually beneficial for both countries,” Petro Poroshenko said. According to the President of Belarus, the trade turnover between the two countries in 2016 equaled 4 billion dollars and there are opportunities to increase this figure.

The parties agreed to use the existing potential for the joint production of high-quality and competitive products that could be in demand not only in Ukraine and Belarus. The two countries are interested in selling their joint products to the third countries.

“It is important that today we have a mutual interest in the creation of new joint enterprises. I mean aircraft manufacturing, transport and agricultural mechanical engineering,” the President informed. The President of Belarus confirmed interest in the given issue. He recalled the examples of successful functioning of the joint Ukrainian-Belarusian enterprises: production of tractors, combine harvesters, elevators and other equipment.

Special attention was paid to energy cooperation. “We have agreed on the concrete steps in the sphere of electricity, oil and gas,” Petro Poroshenko said calling those spheres promising. He confirmed Ukraine’s readiness to supply electricity to Belarus. “We have agreed to consider an opportunity of expanding the supply of energy resources, particularly oil with the use of Ukraine’s unique transit potential,” Petro Poroshenko added.

The parties consider the development of interaction in the sphere of railway, road, water and air connection promising. “We have mutual interest in restoring river connection on Dnieper and Pripyat. Our commissions and ministers have already received respective tasks.” Petro Poroshenko told. According to him, proposals will be formed soon with possible involvement of European partners.

Alexander Lukashenko emphasized great interest of Belarus in developing economic cooperation and trade with Ukraine, modernization of road infrastructure and implementation of innovations.

“Ukraine is one of the top-priority markets for the Belarusian goods,” the President of Belarus emphasized.

The parties praised the results of the work of the Intergovernmental Ukraine-Belarus Joint Commission for Trade-Economic Cooperation, the session of which took place in Kyiv on July 17-18.