The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is preparing changes to the diplomatic buses use rules, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.
“On my behalf, changes are already being made to the diplomatic buses use rules. We are considering various options. This is the possibility of sealing buses, tracking their movement, fixing a clear description of what is on board of such a bus,” Kuleba said at an online briefing on Friday.
He said that now the new rules are being developed by lawyers.
“We will do everything to ensure that our diplomatic transport is used exclusively for its intended purpose. I cannot guarantee the integrity of each of 2,000 employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but I assure that everyone who behaves like a dishonest person will be responsible for this,” the minister said.
The head of the ministry also said that the anti-corruption risk of using the vehicles of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be increased from medium to high. “In the new anti-corruption strategy, this problem will receive the most careful attention. Within the framework of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we will increase the responsibility not only of those people who can be “caught hot,” but also of their superiors for such cases,” he said.
Kuleba also said that the employees of the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland, involved in the attempt to smuggle goods across the border, were fired from the embassy. “I have already informed that both employees who were on this bus have been dismissed from the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland. Their work at the embassy has ended. Now, in accordance with the current legislation, disciplinary investigation into their actions is ongoing, and based on the results of this investigation, I will be ready make the toughest decisions,” he said.
The minister also said that the Foreign Ministry will be absolutely open to interaction with law enforcement agencies and will help them find out all the circumstances of this case and conduct an investigation as much as possible.
“No one has the right to cast a shadow on thousands of Ukrainian diplomats who honestly and diligently work to protect Ukrainian interests, the interests of Ukrainian business, Ukrainian citizens in the world,” Kuleba said, pointing out that everyone who tries to cast such a shadow will be announced persona non grata in Ukrainian diplomacy.
As reported, in the morning on March 1, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine recalled two current employees of the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland, who were involved in an attempt to smuggle goods across the border.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and the project company of the Qatari port operator QTerminals W.L.L. – LLC QTerminals have agreed to cooperate within the framework of the concession of the specialized seaport Olvia (Mykolaiv), the website of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported on Friday.
Cooperation of the parties will be aimed at the implementation of unimpeded and regular rail transportation on the territory of Mykolaiv and their further development.
As reported earlier, representatives of Ukraine and Qatar discussed the implementation of the Olvia port concession agreement by the Qatari company QTerminals.
Ukroboronservis and Qatari’s QTerminals will also cooperate under the Olvia seaport concession.
The contract for the concession of the specialized sea port Olvia (Mykolaiv) was signed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and QTerminals W.L.L. August 20, 2020.
The concessionaire of the port of Olvia, the Qterminals company, plans to create an export grain hub on its basis.
The company plans in 2020 to invest $9.2 million in planning and designing new terminals, obtaining the necessary documents, and beginning infrastructural modernization. In 2021, the company plans to invest $31.3 million, including in new cranes, storage infrastructure and berthing facilities. In general, the Qatari company intends to invest $142 million in this project by 2024.
Acting Minister of Energy Yuriy Vitrenko supports the development of an electronic platform for the purchase and sale of solid biofuels in Ukraine, contributing to a competitive and transparent market for such fuels.
“The mechanism for organizing the biofuel market in Ukraine should be the use of a single electronic platform on which all interested producers and consumers will trade in biofuels,” the press service of the Ukrainian ministry reported, citing Vitrenko speaking at his meeting with Minister of Energy of Lithuania Dainius Kreivys.
According to the report, Ukraine and Lithuania see the development of biofuels as one of the promising areas of cooperation, noting the experience of Lithuania in the creation of the Baltpool biofuel exchange.
During the online meeting, the heads of the energy ministries, in particular, discussed the issues of the future synchronization of the Integrated Power System (IPS) of Ukraine with the power system of continental Europe.
Ukraine intends to increase the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) by 2025 to $15 billion per year, while at the end of 2020 their outflow amounted to $420 million, and in 2021 the National Bank predicts a recovery in FDI inflows at the level of $3 billion.
The targets are enshrined in the National Economic Strategy 2030 posted on the government’s website.
According to it, Ukraine should at least double its real gross domestic product (GDP) in 10 years.
Target indicators are also the following: an increase in exports to $150 billion compared to $49 billion in 2020, an increase in labor productivity by at least 1.7 times, and a decrease in the unemployment rate from 8.6% to 6% in 2030.
As indicated in the strategy, the share of the public sector of the country’s banking system by 2030 should be reduced to 25% from the current 54%.
At the same time, the document contains the intention of the Ukrainian government to keep the state budget deficit at the level of 2-3% of GDP, and the ratio of public debt to GDP at 30-40%.
As for the trade priorities of the state until 2030, here the document sets out plans to increase the share of small and medium-sized businesses of total exports to 40%.
International trade should also be facilitated by the reduction of the time for passing customs procedures to average European indicators, as well as the synchronization of the work of the customs authorities.
In addition, the National Strategy provides for an increase in the share of investment imports by at least 30% by 2030.
SkyUp (Kyiv) will operate a flight from Tel Aviv (Israel) to Kyiv on March 8.
According to the company’s press service on Friday, the departure from Tel Aviv is scheduled for 15:25 local time. The flight arrives at Boryspil International Airport at 18:45.
Tickets are available only for citizens of Ukraine.
Currently, Israel, in accordance with the list of countries with a significant spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), compiled by the Health Ministry of Ukraine, is assigned to the “red” zone. This means that after arriving from this country, observation or self-isolation for 14 days or a negative PCR test is required.
In addition to SkyUp, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plans to operate evacuation flights on the Kyiv-Tel Aviv-Kyiv route on March 8 and March 10.
U.S. President Joe Biden should establish direct and trusting relations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in order to return to normal relations between the countries, experts say.
This recommendation is contained in the “Biden and Ukraine” strategy developed for the administration of new U.S. President Joe Biden, which was released on Friday.
The authors of the work are former NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, former Ambassadors to Ukraine John Herbst and William Taylor, chief analyst of the Eurasian Center of the Atlantic Council Anders Aslund, former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Daniel Fried and Deputy Director of the Eurasian Center of the Atlantic Council Melinda Haring.
“The first order of business should be to establish straightforward relationship, a relationship of trust between Biden and Zelensky after efforts by Trump to leverage the United States’ relationship with Ukraine for his own political benefit. Despite Trump’s actions and the subsequent impeachment process, the United States continued to provide bipartisan support for Ukraine, which testifies to its important interests there and the wisdom of congressional leaders. Still, this experience has left the Zelensky team with real concerns about its relationship with Washington and its image among the U.S. public,” the experts said in the document.
The authors believe that a return to normal the U.S.-Ukrainian relations “will inevitably take time” as the new administrative staff its senior foreign policy ranks.
According to the recommendations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already called Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and “it is important that Biden, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan be in touch soon with their Ukrainian counterparts to underscore the administration’s commitment to cooperate closely with Ukraine.”
“The big objectives of the U.S. policy have been the same since 2014: to help Ukraine defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty in the face of Kremlin aggression, and to help Ukraine undertake the reforms needed to become a nation of laws with a growing and prosperous economy. The Biden team is uniquely qualified to pursue these objectives successfully,” the analysts said.
In addition, they said that vice president, Biden was a hands-on policy maker for Ukraine.
“Now, as president, he will not have the time for that, but he should reach out to Zelensky, first by phone Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attend a joint news conference after a Normandy-format summit in Paris, France, December 9, 2019. Establishing a president-to-president understanding will facilitate policy dealings at lower levels and increase US clout in Kyiv, which will prove important as it works with Ukraine on difficult reform issues,” according to the recommendations.
In their opinion, it is necessary to appoint an ambassador to Ukraine as soon as possible and work with Congress to increase military assistance to Kyiv in the amount of up to $500 million per year.
“Appoint an ambassador as soon as possible. Quickly name a strong candidate who has Biden and Blinken’s trust as the new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and work for their quick Senate confirmation and dispatch to Ukraine,” the experts said in the document.
“Name a special envoy or empower a senior subcabinet official to either join the Normandy Format or to consult frequently with the four players,” the authors said.
