DONETSK, October 18 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian President Dmitry Medvedev believes that the membership of Russia and Ukraine in international integration unions should keep building up bilateral cooperation.
The Russian president said at the interregional economic forum that “trans-border and regional unions are turning into influential players.” He recalled that “Ukraine has the current liabilities as a WTO member,” and “Russia’s probable entry in this organization should be taken into account.”
“Meanwhile, we cannot but take into account the union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in the Customs Union,” the Russian leader noted. He believes that the countries should take all the effort not to weaken, but broaden cooperation.
The Russian president also believes that consular relations between the countries should be developed. He hopes that the countries will open general consulates in Nizhny Novgorod and Donetsk soon.
“Russia and Ukraine are two major European countries and the contribution of our peoples in the development of the continent cannot be underestimated. We have many joint plans in store for us and this is the best advantage to solve any problems,” Medvedev said. He noted that future contacts between our economic entities, companies “should be built on a solid legal basis.”
The Russian president noted that Russia and Ukraine are planning to hold a meeting of the interstate commission, which will also sign new documents for cooperation. Bilateral relations should be built “on equality, mutual trust and support in the spirit of a careful attitude to mutual investments, when each side is seeking to protect the investments of its partner, because it is impossible to develop relations in the modern world in another way,” Medvedev underlined.