During the first telephone conversation, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau agreed to begin negotiations in the near future on expanding the provisions of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Ukraine and Canada in the sphere of services and investments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported.
“The ministers discussed the intensification of interaction between Ukraine and Canada in the political, security, defense, trade, investment and migration spheres,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
Kuleba also expressed gratitude for the work of the Canadian UNIFIER training mission in Ukraine. “Canada, with actions, not just words helps strengthen the security and defense sector of Ukraine. The Canadian instructors of the UNIFIER mission share important experiences and practices for transforming our armed forces in accordance with NATO standards. This is an example of cooperation between close partners,” the press service of the foreign policy department quoted the minister as saying.
The ministers welcomed the launch of the Ukrainian-Canadian working group on mobility issues to strengthen interpersonal ties. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister proposed to hold its first meeting next month and confirmed the interest of the Ukrainian side in concluding a bilateral agreement on youth exchanges.
“Kuleba informed the interlocutor about the priorities of the Crimean platform as a platform for consolidating international efforts to de-occupy Crimea and invited the Canadian side to take part in its inaugural summit this year. Garneau assured that Canada will continue to steadily support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported.
The ministers paid special attention to the topic of countering the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination of the population.
In addition, Kuleba and Garneau stressed the importance of coordinating further actions and forming common positions in preparation for the next stage of negotiations with Iran to bring to justice those responsible for the downing of Flight PS752 and to achieve justice for the victims of the tragedy and their families.
Finally, the interlocutors confirmed a mutual invitation to carry out working visits after the normalization of the epidemic situation.
Gas talks with Ukraine will continue in Minsk on Friday, Gazprom told reporters. “The negotiations are not technical. The level is high. Gazprom to be represented by CEO Alexei Miller,” the company said. Late on Thursday, the parties in Berlin agreed on a protocol on the whole range of gas issues between Russia and Ukraine that should be approved at the highest level.
“We really did a very good job today, prepared a draft protocol, a detailed protocol that is almost ready, which currently needs to be agreed upon, and I hope that we will come to final agreements in the near future,” Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said following the talks in Berlin.
As reported, Berlin on Thursday hosted Russian-Ukrainian gas negotiations with the participation of Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier, Commissioner of the German Government for Gas Transit across Ukraine Georg Graf Waldersee, and Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič.
The Russian side was represented by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine Oleksiy Orzhel, Executive Director of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy Yuriy Vitrenko, and CEO of LLC Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (TSO of Ukraine) Serhiy Makogon acted on behalf of Ukraine.
The trilateral talks in the Ukraine-Russia-European Commission format on transit of Russian gas across Ukraine in 2020 would be resumed in September 2019, Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic has said.
He said in Strasbourg, speaking to deputies of the European parliament of the new convocation after the EU Summit meeting that the trilateral talks by him will be resumed in September.
