Agro Perspectiva

President about Ukraine-Latvia cooperation: We share a common commitment to European values

04.04.2017 17:04 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — As of today, within his official visit to Latvia, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he is confident that Ukraine and Latvia share common commitment to European values. The President has thanked Latvia for a firm and consistent support of Ukraine’s European integration aspirations, which is reflected in numerous projects aimed to support respective reforms in our state and exchange the experience in the implementation of the European integration. «We are interested in the implementation of your achievements in the struggle against corruption, civil service reform, local government and reforms in certain sectors of economy. Our experts thoroughly study the experience of Latvia,» Poroshenko informed. As to the report, the President has added that several important agreements have been reached today, inter alia, on the return of financial assets to Ukraine. Reportedly, the President praised the position of Latvia regarding the necessity of entry into force of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement. «We expect our Dutch partners to complete the ratification shortly and the instruments of ratification will be finally submitted to Brussels,» he said. As to the report, Poroshenko has thanked for the support and cooperation in the introduction of the visa-free regime for Ukrainians by the EU. «Latvia has prepared to that very well. It has three daily flights of Latvian airlines that closely connect Kyiv and Riga. Now, transport communication with Odesa will also be launched. Latvia is a gate to Europe,» he noted. Besides, the President has also noted the restoration of the bilateral Intergovernmental Ukraine-Latvia Commission for Economic, Industrial and Scientific-Technical Cooperation within Dec 2016. As to the report, in his turn, the Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis has emphasized that his country is interested to see Ukrainian cooperation with Europe. He reminded that Latvia has passed this path recently and is ready to share the experience of cooperation with the European Union with Ukraine. Besides, the President of Latvia has also stressed the importance of developing interpersonal relations and free travel that will be opened by the visa-free regime with the EU for Ukrainians. «We hope that Ukrainian citizens will be able to travel to the Schengen countries without visas already this summer,» he said. As to the report, Raimonds Vējonis noted that Ukraine is an important trade partner of his country and Latvia is interested in cooperation in pharmaceutics, agriculture, transport sphere, mechanical engineering and logistics.