OREANDA-NEWS. October 04, 2013. During the meeting with Leonid Kozhara, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis confirmed that Latvia supports the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union (EU), and will appreciate if it succeeds in signing it during the EU-Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Vilnius this year.

”Latvia is well aware of the great geopolitical and economic importance of this decision for Ukraine, therefore we support Ukraine’s willingness to deepen the cooperation with the EU in political and economic dimension,” said V.Dombrovskis.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expressed gratitude for this support and stressed that Ukraine is making the necessary improvements in legislation and legal field according to the EU standards. The Minister of Foreign Affairs also expressed readiness of the Ukrainian side to search for legal solutions to the case of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

L. Kozhara stressed that Ukraine’s objectives to approach the EU in political and economic fields remain the same, and the signing of the Association Agreement will be an important step towards extension of this cooperation. V.Dombrovskis pointed out that the EU-Eastern Partnership will be one of the key priorities in the first half of 2015 when Latvia will be the presiding country of the Council of the European Union.

The two officials appreciated the successful launch of the ZUBR container train route project that connects the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and shared the opinion that it is necessary to develop the economic potential of this project, incl. through closer coordination among the project partners.

V.Dombrovskis pointed out that the Latvian side expects legal and objective solutions to the legal proceedings initiated by company „Reverta” and administrator of „Latvijas Krajbanka” regarding the loan and collateral recovery.

At the conclusion of the meeting, referring to the invitations previously expressed by senior officials of Ukraine to the Prime Minister to pay a visit to Ukraine, the Minister of Foreign Affairs repeatedly emphasized that such visit would extend bilateral relations between Latvia and Ukraine. V.Dombrovskis confirmed that the work is underway to organize such a visit in the first half of 2014, and it is planned that a delegation of Latvian entrepreneurs will also participate.