You're reading: Kyiv ready to cooperate with CIS countries in economic issues, without politicizing this union

Ukraine is ready to cooperate with CIS member countries, without politicizing this union, however, Russia does not comply with the obligations approved earlier as part of the CIS, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis has said.

“Ukraine is interested in economic cooperation with CIS member states, based on the fact that it should not be depoliticized, should comply with the principles and rules of the WTO and should not contradict the provisions of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.

He said that on Nov. 21, Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) hosted another meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Government at which Ukraine was represented by Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkmenistan Valentyn Shevalev.

Ukraine’s participation in this event was stipulated by the need to resolve practical issues of economic cooperation within the CIS, which are of interest to Ukraine, he said.

The participants in this meeting focused on the status of the implementation of the free trade agreement of Oct. 18, 2011, he said.

“In light of the Russian Federation’s violation of this treaty’s provisions, a Ukrainian representative made an official statement, in which it was declared that Russia’s unilateral duty on Ukrainian goods in an amount of a most-favored nation treatment rate and the imposition of sanitary, phyto-sanitary and technical barriers is unacceptable. The Russian Federation was urged to stop using its unfair approach toward implementing its international legal obligations under this treaty,” Perebyinis said.