President Yanukovych recieves letter from President Obama

President of Ukraine meets President of Turkey

"Kyiv and Ankara must intensify their political dialogue, as it will stimulate development of business contacts," said the Ukrainian President.

From his part, President of Turkey noted that cooperation between law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and Turkey should be more effective. "Now we face important challenges, such as fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, the need for creation of common security area in the Black Sea," stressed Abdullah Gül.

He also emphasized that cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey in energy sector is among the priorities.

President returns to Ukraine

President meets Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I

The Ecumenical Patriarch congratulated Viktor Yanukovych on his election as the President of Ukraine and wished him "very fruitful" tenure for the benefit of the Ukrainian people.

Patriarch Bartholomew said that he remembers with sincere affection his visit to Ukraine two years ago, when he had the opportunity "to get acquainted with the progress and holiness of the Ukrainian Orthodox nation." "We always pray for continued stability and prosperity of your beloved country. We know about the schism between the Orthodox in Ukraine, which saddens us a lot. We pray that this schism healed as soon as possible," stressed the Ecumenical Patriarch. He also said that recently he had made the official visit to Russia where he had spoken to "his brother" Patriarch Cyril. According to him, during their conversation the two Patriarchs repeatedly mentioned the fact that both for Russia and Ukraine, the Church of Constantinople is a cradle.

"Recently, when we were in Russia, we said we believe that all our separated brethren would return to the canonical Church, because true salvation is in it," added the Ecumenical Patriarch. "We are more than confident that during your presidency you will do your best to heal these wounds and restore unity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We never stop praying and asking God to restore unity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," he said.

From his part, President Yanukovych expressed his conviction that process of church consolidation is extremely important. "It is impossible to build a strong country without faith," said the President.

Viktor Yanukovych also told the Ecumenical Patriarch about his pilgrimage to the holy Mount Athos where he prayed for Ukraine.

Viktor Yanukovych meets Ilham Aliyev

At the meeting sides have discussed development of relations between Ukraine and Azerbaijan, including those trade-economic.

Viktor Yanukovych expressed admiration of Azerbaijan’s steady economy, which has exhibited 9% GDP growth in 2009, even despite the financial crisis. He also invited the Azerbaijani President to visit Ukraine soon so sides had another opportunity to develop the dialogue between the two states.

Mentioning his participation in the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, President Yanukovych said that he got added evidence that the organization is very important for maintaining security in Asia and even beyond – in the Eurasian region too. Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych said, is interested in ensuring that terrorism, proliferation of nuclear materials and other security threats were fought effectively.

From his part, Ilham Aliyev emphasized that Ukraine is a close friend and strategic partner of Azerbaijan. "We really care about realizing our bilateral potential in full," he said.

The Azerbaijani President also expressed confidence that under the leadership of President Yanukovych, Ukraine would make a lot of progress. "Hopefully, on a firm grounds of mutual sympathy and benevolence of our peoples to one another, we will build our relations based on friendship and common interests that will benefit our peoples," said Ilham Aliyev.

President Yanukovych meets with President Nazarbayev

The sides also discussed preparations for Kazakh President’s official visit to Ukraine. Viktor Yanukovych and Nursultan Nazarbayev agreed to summarize work on practical implementation of 2010-2011 Ukraine-Kazakhstan Action Plan ("Roadmap-3"), in particular, to define what has already been done and which aspects should be paid special attention to, in order to speed up the implementation of the document.

Viktor Yanukovych and Nursultan Nazarbayev have also agreed to develop joint projects in machinery and aircraft construction, space industry, energy sector, to intensify military and technical cooperation and so on.

President: Ukraine and Greece are to significantly intensify bilateral relations

"We agreed with the Greek President to greatly intensify our relations. To do that, we need to elaborate a number of agreements at the level of intergovernmental commission," said Viktor Yanukovych. According to him, having tourism potential, Ukraine is extremely interested in great experience of Greece in this field. "We would like to sign several agreements that would open this way for us," he said.

In particular, Viktor Yanukovych mentioned introduction of tourist ferry transportation between Ukraine and Greece. "A system, which could improve the quality of tourism and create appropriate conditions for tourists, should be established," stressed President Yanukovych, adding that the fact that we are to host Euro 2012 Finals could also contribute to the popularity of the project.

"Crimea is a very interesting region with ancient history, and it certainly must be open to the world. We must discuss all these issues," concluded the President.