Kyiv is ready to discuss cooperation with Moscow in upgrading Ukraine's gas transportation system, nuclear industry, aerospace industry and aircraft engineering, according to Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
"We are ready to discuss the modernization of our GTS," he said at a meeting with Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in Kyiv on Thursday.
Azarov noted that the Ukrainian gas transportation system can pump around 150 billion cubic meters of gas, and if upgraded, its capacity could increase to 200 billion cubic meters.
The modernization of the GTS requires much lower investment than the construction of the South and Nord Stream pipelines, he said.
Ukraine has also discussed the possibility of upgrading its gas transport system with the member states of the European Union, the prime minister said.
"We are also ready to offer Russian serious relations in the nuclear industry, aerospace industry and aircraft engineering," Azarov said.
Shuvalov said Russia had proposed setting up a high-tech fund as a body of the Eurasian Economic Communist (EurAsEC) and that "joint projects in the nuclear, energy and space industries may be put into practice through that fund."
"There still are dozens of areas where we have serious prospects for cooperation, and everything will depend on political will," said Azarov.
He said there had been no such political will over the past several years that preceded Viktor Yanukovych taking office as Ukrainian president in February.
