The tenth meeting of the high-level strategic council between Ukraine and Turkey will be held in early 2022, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.
“The main topic of our today’s talks is the preparation of the tenth meeting of the high-level strategic council, chaired by Presidents Zelensky and Erdogan. The meeting of this strategic council will take place early next year,” Kuleba said at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Lviv on Thursday.
The Minister pointed out that the strategic partnership between Ukraine and Turkey is currently at the highest point of development over the past 30 years.
Kuleba pointed out that the ministers agreed on specific steps that will speed up consultations between the ministries of economies of Ukraine and Turkey on signing a free trade agreement.
“Mevlüt and I are convinced that we and our colleagues from our governments must make every effort to fulfill as soon as possible the instructions of the two presidents and sign a free trade agreement. And today we have agreed on specific steps that will speed up consultations between the ministries of our countries’ economies,” he said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is paying a working visit to Ukraine (Lviv) on October 7-8.
Ukrainian rescuers have returned to Ukraine from Turkey, where they were sent to assist in extinguishing large-scale forest fires, the press service of the State Emergency Service said.
“Two AN-32P aircraft landed at the airfield of the Special Aviation Detachment of the Operational Rescue Service of Civil Protection of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the town of Nizhyn,” the message says.
The head of the Service Mykola Chechotkin congratulated the Ukrainian rescuers on their return, noting that Ukraine is proud of them, and the citizens of Turkey are grateful for their invaluable help.
As reported, on July 30, planes of the State Emergency Service went to Turkey to participate in extinguishing large-scale forest fires in this country.
The fires broke out on July 28 in the tourist province of Antalya and spread to the provinces of Osmaniye, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Adana, Mersin and Mugla. The area of the fires was 1,500 hectares, four people died, about 183 people were injured, more than 100 buildings were damaged.
Ukraine and Turkey are at the final stage of negotiations on a free trade area (FTA) after large moves made in the negotiation process, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“By the way, negotiations on an agreement on FTA with Turkey are now almost on completing. There have been significant positive moves in the negotiations,” he said.
Liubchenko also said that Ukraine had carried out preparatory work for negotiations with Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan.
Speaking about other areas of work of the Ministry of Economy in terms of international trade, he noted the unblocking of the work of the interdepartmental commission with Kazakhstan, following the meeting of which the ministry receives feedback from the parties.
“We are also systematically working with China, coordinated by Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna. We have begun a joint study of the possibility of a free trade area agreement. The results will be known next year. On this basis, a political decision will be made whether to start negotiations. We are also actively working on preparations for negotiations with Indonesia and Vietnam,” he said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar as Ukraine’s Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey.
Relevant decree No. 336/2021 of July 30 was published on the website of the head of state.
“To appoint Bodnar Vasyl Myronovych as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Turkey,” the decree says.
Bodnar has been serving as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine since November 2017. In 2013-2015, he was an adviser to the Ukrainian Embassy in the Republic of Turkey, in 2015-2017 – the Consul General of Ukraine in Istanbul, the representative of Ukraine to the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).
Nova Poshta Global, part of Nova Poshta Group, began delivering goods from online stores in Turkey; goods can be ordered through the NP Shopping website, the company’s press service said on Tuesday.
“Now Turkey is the third largest exporter of clothing in the world, and local manufacturers are actively developing their own brands – today there are more than 500 of them in the market. We expect orders from such online platforms as Hepsibursada, Trendyol, Morhipo, Collezione and others, because very few top Turkish brands are sold abroad online. Of course, the catalog of online stores will be constantly replenished with new names, so Ukrainians will feel like shopping in Turkey,” the press service said, citing Deputy Director for Product Development and Marketing of Nova Poshta Global Olha Volodina.
The company notes that for Turkish goods, the shipping cost will decrease in accordance with the weight of the shipment. To calculate the final shipping cost, one can use the calculator on the NP Shopping website.
Delivery times for orders from Turkey are from eight working days.
The Turkish embassy to Russia has denied information from a number of Russian media outlets about a possible closure of the country’s borders to foreign tourists due to the spread of the Indian variant of coronavirus.
“This information, which was published with reference to an interview with Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, is untrue. The minister did not make such statements during his speech,” the embassy told Interfax.
On Monday, a number of Russian media outlets reported the possible closure of Turkey’s borders to foreign tourists due to the spread of the Delta strain, a new variant of Covid-19, citing the Turkish minister of culture and tourism.
Meanwhile, as the minister said in an interview with CNN Turk, the improvement of the epidemic situation in the country depends first on the rate of vaccination. Ersoy believes that if citizens are actively vaccinated, then Turkey can quickly reach a complete rectification of the epidemiological situation in the country.
As for the spread of the Indian variant of coronavirus and the possibility of reclosing the country’s borders, the culture and tourism minister said that in the current situation, no guarantees can be given, but the country is closely monitoring the Delta strain.
