Victor Yushchenko met with President Jacque Chirac of France to discuss cooperation between the two countries, President's press office reported.
In an interview with reporters after the meeting, the Head of State said, “We have discussed ways to closely cooperate in specific projects.”
The President spelled out they had spoken about projects to build planes and underground gas depots and to save energy. They also discussed ways to form a brigade of helicopters to efficiently fight fires. Then the sides considered cooperation in the agrarian sector. They agreed that farmers from the two countries should share modern technologies and experience with each other.
“Our relations with France are much better now,” he concluded.
Yushchenko added that this was the best illustration of Ukraine’s efficient and pragmatic EU integration and said he expected a Ukraine-EU summit on December 1 to yield great results.
The Head of State claimed that during his visit to France he had been assured that France would support Ukraine’s ambitions to get a market economy status and to liberalize visa requirements for some categories of Ukrainian citizens.
Mr. Chirac confirmed his intention to visit Ukraine next year. He said relations between our countries were politically, culturally and historically close, and told his vis-à-vis that France was ready to support economic and social reforms in our state.
Summing up results of his visit, Victor Yushchenko stressed that the Presidents “put a full stop in our visions” of short-term perspectives of the Action Plan on Ukrainian-French Cooperation, which had recently been signed by the foreign ministers.
