KIEV, December 03, 21:49 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine will send official delegations to Moscow and to Brussels to conduct talks on Kiev’s cooperation with the European Union and Russia, the press service of the Ukrainian government cited Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov’s statement on Tuesday.
The prime minister noted that the Verkhovna Rada’s (parliament) failure to vote no-confidence to the government earlier on Tuesday actually meant that it “supported the government by the majority of votes.”
“We know that the government’s work is not perfect - we see its drawbacks and errors,” Azarov said. “We are open to criticism and areready for a dialogue with representatives from the protesters, from opposition parties.”
But the protesters, in his opinion, should show more responsible attitudes. He called on them to “stop their occupation of governmental buildings and not to hinder the work of state administrations.” He described the actions of street protesters as “absolutely irresponsible.”
“Now we are taking every effort to preserve a tranquil, normal situation in the country,” he said. “Tomorrow [on December 4], our delegation will fly to Brussels and we will continue negotiations that will give us a possibility to sign a European integration agreement on terms beneficial for Ukraine,” he said, adding that another delegation would go to Moscow also on Wednesday. “We want to strengthen our strategic partnership with Russia,” he noted.
According to the Ukrainian prime minister, his country wants to revive trade and economic relations with Russia. “We want to give jobs to our enterprises of the machine-building, space, aircraft-building and pipe-making industries,” he added.
He pledged that the government would spare no effort to keep the situation under control. “We shall do our best not to let the life of our people worsen - it is for sure,” he stressed.