KYIV. May 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and Turkey have agreed on cooperation in nuclear energy, aircraft industry, development of transit corridors, implementation of joint construction projects, facilitating access of Ukrainian metallurgical companies to the Turkish market, the Southern Gas Corridor, infrastructure projects in Crimea to support Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister – Regional Development Minister Hennadiy Zubko summarized the results of the 10th session of the Ukrainian-Turkish Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation.
“We have agreed on the Ukrainian-Turkish partnership in the development of aircraft industry and space technologies. Together with Turkey, Ukraine is ready to develop and produce new passenger and cargo planes at the Antonov State Enterprise. In particular, these include the development and production of the TAN-158 passenger aircraft based on the An-158 aircraft, a transport aircraft based on the An-178 and an aircraft based on the An-70,” Zubko said.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation said that the parties agreed that Turkey would consult Ukraine on the safety of its nuclear power plants and on the training of all categories of NPP personnel and training of Turkish students and graduate students in Ukraine.
According to him, the agreements include the creation of favorable conditions for bilateral transit shipments, in particular for transporting Turkish goods through the territory of Ukraine to Poland, Slovakia, and the Scandinavian countries. “The next steps of cooperation will be the introduction of uniform rules for sea waybills between the ports of Ukraine and Turkey. At the moment, the parties are agreeing on the tariff and technological conditions of shipments,” Zubko said.
The vice premier also said that the parties decided to hold a joint international construction forum in Kyiv in 2016-2017, having agreed by that time on a number of strategically important infrastructure facilities.
“We are negotiating the opening of its market by Turkey to our metallurgical companies. Ukraine is ready to join the development and reconstruction of Turkish steel companies. We have agreed on cooperation in the field of energy, in particular in the design of new ‘green’ buildings,” Zubko said.
In addition, he said Turkey and Ukraine were planning to set up a joint committee on customs issues to improve the bilateral trade relations.
“We have discussed the possibility of Ukraine’s entry into an important project – the Southern Gas Corridor if it is economically feasible and to ensure non-discriminatory access to the respective capacities,” the deputy prime minister said.
He also stressed the importance of Turkey’s position on the Crimean issue, in particular the fate of the Crimean Tatar people. “We will contribute to the Turkish infrastructure projects aimed at the support of Crimean Tatars,” Zubko said.
As reported, Kyiv hosted the 10th meeting of the Ukrainian-Turkish Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation on May 12-13 co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Utilities Services of Ukraine Hennadiy Zubko and Minister of National Defense of Turkey Ismet Yilmaz. The head of the Turkish delegation also met with the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman.
According to the State Statistics Service, in 2015, Turkey was 2nd in terms of the volume of Ukrainian exports abroad and 5th in terms of the volume of trade. Meanwhile, last year, the exports of goods from Ukraine to Turkey fell by 22.2% to $2.77 billion, while the imports shrank by 34.5% to $0.85 billion.
