Ukraine and Turkey, within the framework of the Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement, have reached an agreement on the complete liberalization of road transportation.
“As part of the FTA, a historic agreement was reached on the complete liberalization of road transportation. Restrictions for Ukrainian road carriers in the Turkish market will soon be lifted, in particular, this also applies to the entry of empty vehicles. That is, trucks will be able to enter empty and return with goods,” Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov wrote on his Facebook page.
He stressed that the next step is to expand cooperation on combined and multimodal transportation between Ukraine and Turkey.
“We propose to create special conditions for tuning transport chains in the “road-port-road” format,” Kubrakov stressed.
According to him, the strategic goal of Ukraine is the maximum removal of restrictions for Ukrainian carriers.
Kubrakov recalled that in negotiations with the European Union, Ukraine stands for the complete liberalization of road freight traffic.
He also expressed hope that cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey in terms of road construction will be expanded thanks to new projects, including the construction of concession roads.
Kubrakov also stressed that the countries continue to work together on an agreement on cooperation in the field of maritime search and rescue in the Black Sea.
“This is an important issue for Ukraine, which arose sharply after the annexation of Crimea. An agreement with Turkey will help legally secure Ukraine’s areas belonging to it, improve the ability to conduct search and rescue operations. This will eliminate insinuations from the aggressor country about Ukraine’s failure to fulfill its international obligations,” the minister said.
He also noted the prospects for cooperation between Turkish partners and the largest Ukrainian state stevedore – Pivdenny seaport, since among all Ukrainian ports it will potentially be able to receive the largest ships that will enter the Black Sea thanks to the built Istanbul Canal.
Among the proposals voiced by the parties to the discussion of the FTA agreement is the expansion of the geography of air travel between the countries, including on the Istanbul-Uzhgorod route.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit Ukraine again on Monday, February 7 and will also go to the contact line in Donbas, the ministry’s spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said.
“The minister will visit Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday…. She will visit Zaporizhia and from there will go to the contact line,” Sasse said.
In addition, Baerbock will meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and will also visit the monument to the victims of the Holodomor.
Earlier it was reported that Baerbock will make this trip to Ukraine together with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
In January, Baerbock already visited Kyiv before going to Moscow.
Ukraine and Turkey have signed an agreement to expand the joint production of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Today we’ve paid special attention to cooperation in the aviation and defense industries. This is one of the locomotives of our strategic partnership. Our goal is the implementation of specific projects to create joint ventures, exchange of experience, exchange of technologies. An agreement has been signed today that will expand the production of unmanned aerial vehicles,” Zelensky said at a joint briefing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Kyiv.
As reported, Oleksiy Arestovych, the speaker of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the situation in Donbas, in December 2021 announced that the Ukrainian-Turkish plant, which is being built in the town of Vasylkiv, Kyiv region, will produce reactive heavy drones of the ANKA type – the next generation of drones after Bayraktar, as well as promising Ukrainian drones.
“In particular, we can talk about jet drones, which are interceptors. That is, they are capable of operating against air targets, against other drones. Even against manned aircraft. They will have Ukrainian engines and the rest of Turkish avionics: a hull, etc.,” he said.
According to Arestovych, the plant in Vasylkiv should already produce the first products at the end of 2022.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who canceled her visit to Ukraine due to coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, said that she would go to Kyiv as soon as possible, and also plans to visit Moscow.
“She expressed her deep disappointment at being unable to travel to Ukraine this week, but hopes to reschedule her visit soon and said she plans to visit Moscow shortly,” according to a press release posted on the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s website, following a conversation between Truss and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.
Truss herself also said on Twitter that she would travel to Ukraine “as soon as possible.”
The British and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers discussed, in particular, “how responding decisively and strongly to the Kremlin now will help deter future as well as present Russian aggression.”
On Monday, Truss said she had infected with COVID-19 and would work from home during the lockdown. That is why she was not able to accompany British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his visit to Ukraine on Tuesday, as previously planned.
On January 30, the prime minister’s office said that Truss would pay a visit to Moscow in the next two weeks.
Indian-based Indegene, in which Carlyle and Brighton Park Capital announced a $200 million investment for global expansion and acceleration of M&A deals a year ago, plans to open offices in Lviv (Ukraine), Krakow and Rzeszow (Poland), as well as Guadalajara (Mexico) for healthcare consulting and life sciences research.
“We are very impressed with the deep talent pool in Mexico, Poland and Ukraine. They have contemporary digital skills, great analytical abilities, and a nuanced understanding of user experience. We look forward to enhancing it with life sciences expertise and modern business process knowledge. Together, these skills open up tremendous career opportunities for a diverse, local talent community in a purpose-driven industry,”Manish Gupta, the co-founder and CEO of Indegene. Said.
Indegene, founded in 1998 by five entrepreneurs, has become a major player in the digital transformation market for medicine and healthcare. With more than 3,000 employees in North America, Europe, China, Japan and India, Indegene provides technology platforms and commercialization services to pharmaceutical, biotech and healthcare companies and has completed at least seven M&A transactions over the years.
