Victor Ushenko, the Ukraine President, can pay a visit to Azerbaijan till the parliamentary elections to be held in Ukraine in March 2006, Igor Kizima, the Ukraine charge daffair in Azerbaijan, told Trend.
According to Kizima, the visit of the Ukrainian President was planned long ago. He underlined necessity of such visit, which is interesting for both Ukraine and Azerbaijan. The diplomat noted that the sides planned the visit from summer 2005, but did not carried out it in autumn due to the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan and put off till the New Year. According to Kizima, the sides hold intensive preparations for organization of the visit in the first half-year, taking into consideration the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine in late March. The proposal has been put forward by Ukraine and it is currently waiting for reply, the diplomat said.
It should be mentioned that for technical reasons the news agency reported mistaken information on postponement of Ushenkos visit in relation to the governmental crisis in Ukraine.
According to Kizima, the next meeting of the Azerbaijani-Ukraine Commission on Economic Cooperation is due to be held prior the visit. The meetings of the organization are due to be held twice in a year, but meetings of 1st Vice-Premiers have not staged for 2 years. The diplomat mentioned necessity of the holding of the meeting as preparatory event on organization of the visit. It should be mentioned that the co-chairmen of the commission is Stanislav Stashevskiy, the Ukrainian 1st Vice-Premier, and his Azerbaijani counterpart Abbas Abbasov.
Besides, expert group is expected to arrive in Azerbaijan in late January to prepare agreements, particularly, general agreement on cooperation in oil and gas sphere. Ukraine has addressed to the Azerbaijani Foreign Affairs Ministry with such proposal and waits for reply on unification of exact terms of the work of the expert group, intergovernmental commission and the visit of the President, the diplomat underlined.
Touching upon the arrival of the Stepan Volkovedtskiy, the newly appointed Ambassador of Ukraine, to Azerbaijan, Kizima stressed that it was expected on 21 January. The diplomat is sure that new stage of the bilateral relations will start after the arrival of the new Ambassador, since Volkovedtskiy worked as Ukrainian Ambassador to Georgia and know the region well.