Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba held a telephone conversation with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at the initiative of the French side.
“Dmytro Kuleba separately touched upon the issue of France’s recognition of Ukrainian certificates of vaccination against COVID-19. The parties agreed that the corresponding Ukrainian-French consultations will soon take place,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The ministers noted the unprecedentedly high level that bilateral relations between Ukraine and France have now reached. The French minister expressed satisfaction with the close dialogue he had with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Le Drian expressed his gratitude to Kuleba for his personal assistance in the quick and well-coordinated relocation of the French Embassy in Ukraine to the new premises.
“The ministers welcomed the active development of economic cooperation, in particular the conclusion of four strategic intergovernmental agreements totaling more than EUR 1.3 billion. The parties positively noted a recent visit of a plenipotentiary delegation of the Movement of the Enterprises of France [MEDEF] to Ukraine, which included top leaders of a number of French companies,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said.
The parties also discussed the prospects for the Normandy format at all levels: heads of state and government, foreign ministers, and advisers to leaders.
“Kuleba noted that Ukraine highly appreciates the efforts of France in the framework of the Normandy format, which despite the provocative behavior of Russia, remains the main platform for the settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict,” the ministry said.
In addition, Le Drian explained in detail to Kuleba the motives behind a recent German-French initiative to restore the EU’s dialogue with the Russian Federation, which did not find support among the EU member states.
“The French minister stressed that Paris is in favor of a demanding dialogue towards Moscow. The head of Ukrainian diplomacy recalled that the EU suspended summits with Russia in 2014 as a result of Russia’s aggression against our state, and without constructive steps from the Russian side, there are no grounds to talk about the restoration of this format of a dialogue,” the report said.
The Lekhim Group of Companies plans to supply the first 500,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine against coronavirus (COVID-19) CoronaVac produced by Sinovac and purchased by the British agency Crown Agents at the expense of the national budget.
The company told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday, the first delivery under this contract is expected on July 5.
In addition, the company said that on July 29, Lekhim carried out the last delivery of this vaccine under a contract with state-owned enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine.
As reported, Lekhim supplied 1.9 million doses of CoronaVac vaccine to Ukraine under a contract with the Health Ministry.
The contract with Crown Agents provides for the delivery of 7.7 million doses of this vaccine to the country.
From July 1, key trading platforms of the world will be able to act as a tax agent for sellers, including sellers from Ukraine, thanks to which the procedure for registration of shipments to EU countries will be significantly simplified for the latter and, provided that the shipment is correctly processed, the time for passing through customs control will be reduced.
The press service of Ukrposhta reported on Wednesday that key marketplaces such as Etsy, eBay, Wish, Amazon and others, in particular, will independently calculate VAT on goods sold that are sent to Europe, and will directly settle with the tax authorities of the countries of delivery.
“For Ukrainian entrepreneurs, this means that all parcels to Europe with goods worth up to EUR 150, which will pass the correct registration in the personal account of Ukrposhta, will be delivered as quickly as possible and automatically go through customs in a few seconds. Previously, customs clearance of parcels could take from one day to a week, depending on the workload of customs inspectors,” the company said.
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on June 30 approved a $212 million financing package for private joint-stock company Ukrhydroenergo for installation of hybrid systems for electricity production.
“The project will enhance the flexibility of the Ukrainian power system to help synchronize it with the European electricity grid and decarbonize the power sector,” the World Bank said.
The $212 million financing package includes a $177 million International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loan, a $34 million Clean Technology Fund (CTF) concessional loan, and a $1 million CTF grant for a new project in Ukraine.
“The World Bank’s financing will help mitigate technical risks associated with synchronizing Ukraine’s power grid with the European electricity grid and will help decarbonize it by facilitating greater integration of renewable energy,” the World Bank said.
Ukraine hopes the EU will add it to the list of countries from which free entry is allowed in two weeks, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko said.
“There is no policy in the recommendation of the European Commission. Every two weeks, the EU member states revise the list of third countries for free entry into the EU. The recommendation is formed, in particular, based on four factors: the rate of new cases of COVID-19 reported per 100,000 population over the previous 14 days, the number of tests in seven days, the level of positive tests and the nature of the virus, in particular the presence of more dangerous strains,” Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
He said the indicators in Ukraine for the period when the European Commission conducted the assessment, even exceeded the norm.
“It should be borne in mind here that the assessment of indicators was conducted not over the past days, but over the previous several weeks, when they were higher. Since we are now more and more approaching the norm established by the European Commission, on behalf of Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian Delegation to the EU is interacting with the European side to include Ukraine in the list during its next review,” the spokesperson said.
At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the recommendation of the European Commission to open the EU borders for a certain list of countries is not legally binding.
“EU member states individually approve final decisions to weaken or strengthen travel restrictions. Accordingly, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is working with European countries on a bilateral level to simplify travel conditions for Ukrainians, in particular the recognition of vaccination certificates and digital COVID-19 certificates,” Nikolenko said.
The Ukrainian industrial company Interpipe is continuously evolving high-tech exports as well as collaboration with Indian Railways. The cooperation between two companies has already been lasting for more than 25 years.
The company said in a press release that during this time Interpipe supplied both locomotive and passenger wheels to India.
“Now, specifically for Indian Railways, we have developed an improved wheel design for passenger transport in accordance with the operating conditions in India,” the company said in the press release.
Due to the new design, the carrier expects to significantly increase the safety of railway traffic after repairs of passenger rolling stock.
Interpipe NTRP has already started executing this order.
The company expects to supply the Indian national railway operator with a record volume of these wheels. It will help Interpipe to strengthen a long-term relationship with Indian Railways.
Interpipe is global producer of steel pipes and railway wheels, based in Ukraine. The company’s products are marketed in more than 80 countries all around the world via the network of sales offices located in key markets of Ukraine, Europe, North America and the Middle East.
