Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The 10th meeting of the Ukrainian-Azerbaijani Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation was held in Kiev on November 14.

The two sides mulled a wide range of cooperation between the two countries.

The discussions focused on the energy sector, Trend news agency reported citing Ukrainian Ukrinform.

"We talked in detail about our cooperation in the energy sphere. This is a topic that needs deep studies on a professional level," Ukrainian vice Prime Minister Konstantin Grishchenko said at a press conference after the meeting.

He noted that the sides have analyzed several aspects and plans of work that should be conducted in the near future to have cooperation in the energy sector reach the strategic level.

The vice Prime Minister went on to say that these issues cannot be resolved overnight by some individual decision.

"There are a number of factors that must be considered, but the most important thing is that there are positive dynamics and real prospect for the implementation of such plans, and the sides fully agree on this," Grishchenko noted.

Answering journalists' questions about the prospects for Azerbaijan's oil supplies to Ukraine, the vice PM said that the sides had very substantive and concrete discussions on this issue, which was based on real factors and possibilities.

The Ukrainian vice PM added that such meetings of the Ukrainian-Azerbaijani Intergovernmental Commission are held regularly.

In addition to the energy sector, the talks focused on the implementation of large infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan, and transportation, communication and cooperation in the space sector.

The Azerbaijani delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister Yaqub Eyyubov was in Kiev to participate in the meeting.

Eyyubov was received by Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

During the meeting, Azarov highly appreciated the results of the 10th meeting of the Ukrainian-Azerbaijani Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation.

"The meeting of the Ukraine-Azerbaijan Intergovernmental Commission was successful," he said.

He went on to note that economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Ukraine is on a high level, and successfully developing.

According to Azarov, cooperation on economy, energy, transport, and defense industry are the main directions for cooperation between the two countries.

He also mentioned the necessity of increasing the volume of trade turnover between the two countries to at least $1 billion.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992. Both Azerbaijan and Ukraine are full members of the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM), and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Trade turnover between Ukraine and Azerbaijan reached $900 million in 2012.