KIEV, December 18, 1:49 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine's ruling Party of Regions has highly appreciated the strategic accords reached Tuesday by the country's President Viktor Yanukovich during his visit to Russia.

A statement circulated by the party says the Regionals regard the agreements concluded on Tuesday as an "important stage in the restoration and development of friendly and mutually beneficial relations between Ukraine and Russia".

"By signing agrerments with the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian side does not surrender the national interests, does not surrender the national gas transprtation system, and does not plan to enter the Customs Union. Ukraine remains true to its strategic Eurointegration course, and makes all necessary efforts for a consistent entry, painless to the domestic commodity producer, into the European trade-and-economic space," the statement says.

The Party believes that a resumption of strategic partnership with the RF and the lifting of trade limitations are fraught with a considerable potential for economic growth and a powerful stimulating factor in a successful development of basic branches of the national economy and implementation of large-scale joint projects in machinebuilding, fuel-and-energy, transport, aerospace, and technical military cooperation fields.

"The decision on a considerable lowering of the cost of Russia's gas being supplied to Ukraine can be regarded as a truly far-reaching one," the document points out.

The opinion of the Party of Regions is that the lowering of the price of gas will make it possible "to revitalize whole branches of the national economy, raise the competitiveness of the domestic commodity producer, and considerably augment the export potential of Ukraine".

In so doing, the Reigonals specially emphasize that the Ukrainian authorities' main foreign-policy priority "has alwayd been and remains to uphold the national interests, create the necessary foreign-policy conditions, including investment-related ones, and prerequisites for effecting a structural modernization of the national economy, raising the competittveness of the domestic produce, and dynamically raising the standards of living of the citizens of Ukraine".

The document also points out that, upon successfully settling the major issues in trade-and-economic cooperation with Russia, Ukraine will consolidate its positions in the process of negotiations with the European Union and will have additional arguments for upholding the national interests.

It was reported earlier that as a result of the 6th session of the Russia-Ukraine interstate commmission, held in Moscow on Tuesday, fourteen documents were signed in the presence of the two countries' presidents. Specifically, the sides approved an Action Plan for settling the question of limitations in bilateral trade between the RF and Ukraine for the 2013-2014 period.

According to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, the issue cocerning Ukraine' signing an Agreement on Association with the EU was not discussed at the interstate commission's session which was co-chaired by Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yanukovich.