MOSCOW, December 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia would be able to use Ukraine’s defense capabilities for the needs of the country’s Armed Forces, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission here on Tuesday.
“We are prepared to consider an opportunity to bring our countries closer in economy, political sphere, using the defense capabilities of Ukrainian economy for the needs of the Russian Armed Forces, including repairs and other issues,” the Russian leader noted.
The Defense Ministries of both countries have already prepared their proposals on the issue, Putin added.
The Russian president also noted that the annual amount of money transfers from Russia to Ukraine makes 2.3 billion dollars. The volume of accrued Russian investment in Ukrainian economy has reached 1.5 billion dollars.
Putin noted that Russian companies are making investment actively in the basic industries of Ukrainian economy, including the fuel and energy sector, chemical and metallurgical industries as well as machine-building.
The Russian president also raised several major joint projects in the nuclear power industry, aircraft-building, engine production, transport and a 4-year program for peaceful space exploration. Speaking on the agrarian sector he recalled that Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan are forming a Black Sea regional grain committee. This structure “will help us to negotiate the activity of the leading suppliers on the world grain market,” Putin noted.
In his view, Russia and Ukraine would be able to co-operate more actively on the international scene, intensify the negotiations on the positions of the countries over pressing global problems, first of all, regional security with the support given by the Sevastopol-based Russian Black Sea Fleet.
The Russian president noted that he and visiting Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovich had already discussed on Tuesday the co-operation between the countries in economic and humanitarian spheres. Putin recalled that Russia remains Ukraine’s main economic partner, the country’s share in the Ukrainian foreign trade reaches 30 percent. Meanwhile, he noted a negative downward tendency in Russian-Ukrainian trade that should be reversed and the countries should “not only reach the previous levels, but also should provide conditions for onward movement.” In Putin’s view, the action plan, which should be approved upon results of the Tuesday’s meeting, aims to settle trade restrictions.
The Russian president finds it necessary to attain the fruition of the road map plan on investment, financial cooperation and cooperation between different industries. The road map was adopted in October 2013.
Before the meeting of the interstate commission the leaders of the two countries have an eye-on-eye meeting, which lasted about 2.5 hours.