Estonia hopes Ukraine will sign association agreement with EU in 2013

Estonia hopes that Ukraine will sign the association agreement with the European Union in 2013, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet has said in an interview with the Ukrainian Week magazine.

"Estonia's position is to determine a concrete date and an event during which it would be possible to sign the agreement on association and the free trade area. We hope to sign it next year, and then we are also planning to liberalize our visa regime with Ukraine," he said.

Paet said supporting countries that are not yet members of the EU is of moral significance to the Estonian side.

"Such countries as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia also want to get closer to the EU, and we believe that the provision of support to them is our moral duty, in the same way as other countries once helped us move toward achieving this goal," the Estonian diplomat said.