Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryshchenko met with Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan during his official visit to Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministers discussed the ways of facilitation of the bilateral trade and economic cooperation, as well as agreed to take moves to enlarge the treaty-legal basis of bilateral relations. The parties were unanimous on the need to step up political contacts at the topmost and high levels.

The Ministers exchanged their views on topical issues of international politics, in particular in the light of the recent events in the Middle East.

The intentions of the sides to maintain constant dialogue at the level of Foreign Ministries were fixed at the Memorandum on political consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates, signed by Ministers K.Gryshchenko and A. Al Nahyan after the talks.

The first constituent session of the Intergovernmental Ukraine – Emirate Commission on trade and economic cooperation was held under the presidency of the Foreign Ministers of Ukraine and the UAE. The heads of the delegations discussed a wide range of issues, connected with the facilitation and diversification of bilateral trade, formation of a favourable investment climate for the attraction of Emirate investments into the Ukrainian economy.

The sides expressed mutual interest towards the deepening of cooperation in the spheres of industry, agriculture, energy, aircraft construction, transportation, banking activity and health care.

A particular interest the Emirate party showed to the prospects of cooperation with Ukraine in the use of renewable energy sources and the supply of Ukrainian “Antonov” planes to the UAE.

The Foreign Minister of the UAE, when speaking about the importance of facilitation of cooperation with Ukraine in all spheres of economy, trade and investments, announced about the decision of his country to open the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Kyiv soon.