Saturday, November 1, 2008

President meets Belgian FM

President Victor Yushchenko meet the Prime Minister of Belgium Yves Leterme.

At the meeting sides discussed Ukraine’s course towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration, bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and Belgium, global international relations, etc.

At the beginning of the meeting President stressed expectancies of further deepening of cooperation between Ukraine and Belgium. According to him a Roadmap of Ukrainian-Belgian relations for 2009-2010, to be signed by the countries next month would be an important step towards that.

Victor Yushchenko also told Yves Leterme about anti-crisis measures, Ukraine is taking to prevent aggravation of world financial crisis impact on national economy.

Speaking about Ukraine’s aspiration to gain NATO MAP President emphasized that in no case it would result in internal tensions in Ukraine; quite the contrary – Ukraine’s success in gaining the Action Plan would put this sensitive subject off the agenda. He added that number of Ukrainians who support country’s membership in NATO is constantly growing and that final decision on membership will be made only through democratic procedures.

Beside that President Yushchenko expressed hope for Belgium’s favorable position on Ukraine’s aspiration to join the EU.

In addition the sides have discussed implementation of the Ukraine-EU agreement on simplification of EU visas issuing procedure.