On June 19-21, Deputy Minister Pavlo Klimkin has been on a working visit to Iceland to conduct Ukrainian-Icelandic political consultations at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers.

The delegation of Iceland to the consultations was headed by Permanent Secretary of State of the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs Einar Gunnarsson. During the visit, Deputy Minister Klimkin also held a meeting with Chief Negotiator of Iceland in the EU accession talks Stefan Johannesson.

During their talks the sides have defined joint measures to strengthen bilateral trade-economic and investment cooperation, especially in view of the entry into force of the FTA agreement between Ukraine and EFTA in June 2012, which Iceland is also a member of.

The sides have confirmed their mutual interest in further developing political dialogue at all levels and agreed to prepare a schedule of bilateral activities for the near future.

The Icelandic side has been informed on our country’s European integration priorities and the development of EU-Ukraine relations. In particular, the Ukrainian side stressed its determination to complete the preparations for signing and ratifying the Association Agreement. The Ukrainian side also expressed its interest in exchanging experience with Iceland in the area of accession negotiations with the EU, and stressed hope that Iceland would support the European integration of our country in the framework of regular consultations of Nordic countries and in the format of Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB 8).

The sides have agreed to speed up the process of elaboration of a number of draft bilateral agreements pending consideration, such as the agreement on simplification of visa procedures and readmission.