Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said cooperation of Ukraine with the Customs Union (CU) comprising Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia is not a political issue and is based on economic expediency, Novosti-Kazakhstan news agency reported on Friday.

"For our economy it is vital to agree with and interact with the CU member states, and there is absolutely no politics involved here," Azarov told local television channels. "But when political speculations begin over this, [with some saying that] you want to join the Customs Union but not the European Union, this is no good for our country. I have always been against such comparisons. [But] in both cases we are guided by economic interests."

Ukraine, which has declared a strategic course toward European integration, plans to sign an association agreement with the EU at the end of 2013. At the same time, Kiev has announced its aim to join some regulations of the CU. Moscow has offered Kiev to join the CU, promising in return to supply energy resources for concessional prices. The Ukrainian government proposes cooperation with the union in a "three plus one" format, i.e. involving Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan plus Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said Ukraine may potentially join the Customs Union in the future, but the country's Constitution currently does not allow that.

In May 2011 Yanukovych stated that Ukraine is "searching for mechanisms of cooperation that will allow us to work with the Customs Union which Ukrainian laws and our obligations to world organizations allow".