KIEV, August 10 (Itar-Tass) —— Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov stresses the importance of economic cooperation between Ukraine and Russia in connection with the threat of a second wave of the world financial crisis. He noted this on Wednesday at the Ukrainian-Russian forum “Second Wave of World Crisis and Prospects for Ukrainian-Russian Economic Relations”.
“There is much optimism that a second wave of the crisis will not sweep the world, but there are also certain risks and doubts. In this situation mutual support and mutual assistance of our two considerable economies would be extremely important,” the premier said.
He believes Ukraine could cooperate closer with Russia and with other countries of the Customs Union in the framework of the Common Economic Space (CES) in some branches of the economy. “Our export potential nears 24 million tons of grain. Russia’s grain export potential, as far as I know, is about 35 million tons. Kazakhstan can export 15 million tons. If combined, this will amount to a sizable share of the world market. So the question arises what is the easier way to enter that market – separately or together,” he said.
The premier is of the opinion that Ukrainian-Russian relations somewhat complicated recently, above all in connection with the establishment of the Customs Union and the question as to the format of Ukraine’s participation in it. At the same time Azarov stressed that commercial and economic relations between the two countries developed quite positively in the first six months of the year.