Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 28 / Trend /
The prospects for expanding full-scale cooperation between Azerbaijan and Ukraine are very encouraging, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev. The statement was posted on the official website of the Ukrainian President reported.
"I see that the prospects for expanding full-scale cooperation are very encouraging," President Aliyev, who is in Ukraine on an official visit, said.
Azerbaijani President expressed confidence that the current level of relations between Azerbaijan and Ukraine, especially, the prospects of their development, will greatly depend on both presidents' close cooperation and communication.
The President noted the constructive course of the current talks and detailed consideration of a wide range of issues of bilateral cooperation.
"We reiterated our sincere desire to strengthen political cooperation and consultations, to provide mutual support in international organizations, to cooperate actively in regional affairs, especially in matters of integration policy of the Caspian-Black Sea basin," the Azerbaijani President said.
President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan and Ukraine are the leading countries in strengthening and expanding transport and energy corridors connecting the Black and the Caspian seas. Thus, Ukraine and Azerbaijan are actively involved in regional integration and cooperation.
The two sides [countries] have discussed in detail the issues related to power engineering and fuel-energy complex today, President Aliyev said.
"We are very glad that we see concrete results here. We hope to expand cooperation in both oil and gas spheres," he said.
Azerbaijani President expressed confidence that the broader regional cooperation in power engineering, diversification of transportation routes of oil and gas reserves, strengthening energy security measures for producers and consumers will depend on the efficiency and effectiveness of cooperation between Ukraine and Azerbaijan in this sector.
"We are very pleased that the trade turnover between our countries is increasing," President Aliyev said.
"We must fully use the potential of our economies and our companies to cooperate more actively and fill in our activity with concrete content. All opportunities are available," President Aliyev said.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych noted that the second Meeting of the Council of Azerbaijani and Ukrainian Presidents held today was preceded by much work, in particular, designing a protocol of the meeting.
"There was one goal to fill it with meaning and concrete content," the Ukrainian president said.
"There are traditions established many years ago in our bilateral relations. We know each other well. We agreed that we will greatly intensify the Ukrainian-Azerbaijani relations and fill in them with meaning," Yanukovych said.
"We have greatly expanded a list of advantageous issues, consistent with our national interests. These are the issues of trade and economic cooperation and joint work in international organizations. There is wide range of humanitarian ties, which exist between Azerbaijani and Ukrainian peoples for several centuries," the president said.
"I would attach special place in our economic and trade relations to the development of our relations in the energy sector. We have agreed to establish a joint working group which will fulfill the strategic agreement between our two countries. It, in particular, will ensure a significant increase in the supply of energy resources from Azerbaijan to Ukraine ", Viktor Yanukovych said.
"We will develop mechanisms for this program. We do not exclude that this cooperation will be extended to the third countries, such as Russia and the countries of the Caspian Basin. Diversification of energy resources is a topical issue in the agenda. We think that Azerbaijan has a great potential to increase volumes of oil and gas. We wish our friends to expand this prospect as soon as possible, " the Ukrainian president said.
He said that the cooperation in high technologies is also one of the questions, which is now on the agenda.
"We think that there is a great prospect in its development," Viktor Yanukovych said.
"We can say with certainty that we will increase the trade turnover between our countries not by percents but times in 2010. This is the result of our bilateral work. Our task is not to stop on this. We must continue this mutually beneficial activity. Ukraine, as a trading partner of Azerbaijan, ranks second now. Of course, we want to improve this result. So, I would like to say with great pleasure that we believe in the prospect. We will work on it, making every effort," the Ukrainain president said.