RIGA - During his first state visit to Latvia, Ukrainian President Viktor Juscenko and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga on April 27 discussed the possibility to expand the work of the international government commission of both countries in order to achieve large development of contacts starting from the political dialogue and economic contacts up to wider co-operation in the area of culture.
Viktors Juscenko confirmed that the businesspeople from Latvia are welcome to Ukraine to carry out investment projects as well as establish joint ventures.
"To the Ukraine, cooperation with Latvia means moving toward greater democracy," stressed Ukrainian President.
In her turn, Vaira Vike-Freiberga urged Ukraine to continue the assumed reforms for the country growth and democratization and pointed out that Latvia would continue to support Ukraine in its reforms and in the Euroatlantic movement. The parties dealt with the need for a common European Union policy concerning power industry.
"Latvia would also like to see the energy from the sources in the Caucasus to lead through Ukraine as an energy transit country to the Baltic States, including Latvia," president said. "These would be new energy roads and it is necessary that in the future Europe would also think about other sources of energy as well as delivery and distribution centers, which is a significant issue and will remain such for the nearest time and therefore requires very serious bilateral as well as multilateral consultations," she added.
When asked about the NATO summit at the end of the year and the transatlantic aspirations of Ukraine Vaira Vike-Freiberga told the journalists that Latvia supported that Ukraine could get the Action Plan for the accession to NATO in the nearest time.
"Latvia will host the NATO summit next autumn and in this meeting mainly the changes and future plans of the alliance itself will be discussed, however at the same time the future plans also cover the eventual enlargement and on this context it is very much possible that Ukraine will receive the Action Plan even before the autumn summit.
It would be a recommended step in the opinion of Latvia." The President said Latvia wishes Ukraine to move forward as quickly as possible and stressed that Latvia fully supports the enlargement of the security and stability area in the Eastern Europe and respects the choice of Ukraine to join the NATO alliance as Latvia considers that every sovereign country is fully entitled to choose its security mechanisms and co-operation partners.
