Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Uzbekistan and Ukraine discussed the prospective development of Uzbek-Ukrainian cooperation in 2014 in political, trade, economic, cultural, and humanitarian fields.

The discussions were held on December 18 between Uzbek Foreign Ministry and Ukraine's ambassador to the country Yuriy Savchenko.

Bilateral relations and the results of interaction between the two countries in the past year were among the discussed issues.

Uzbekistan and Ukraine have repeatedly confirmed their interest in the development of political dialogue at a high level, the expansion of economic interactions between the two countries, and the maximal development of Ukrainian-Uzbek relations with prospective projects of bilateral cooperation.

Foreign ministries of the two countries signed an inter-agency cooperation program in October 2013 for 2014-2015, the Foreign Ministry said.

Relations between the countries are currently based on a solid legal framework which creates favorable conditions for cooperation on all spectrums of mutual benefit.

Ukraine ranks third among the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and seventh among global partners in trade volume.

Ukraine is one of the most important trade partners of Uzbekistan. Bilateral trade between the two countries increased by 56.6 percent in late 2012, and amounted to $1.078 billion, the official statistics of Uzbekistan show.

About 50 enterprises with Ukrainian capital operate in Uzbekistan, the offices of 16 Ukrainian firms and companies have been accredited in this country.