Ukraine on possible free trade zone between EU and CIS

Ukraine does not rule out the possibility of creating a free trade zone and a single economic zone between the European Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Anatoly Oryol, chief of the Ukrainian Main Department for Foreign Policies and deputy head of the president's administration, announced in Kiev yesterday. He commented on the results of negotiations between Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in Moscow, devoted to regional integration, and recalled that the EU and Russia had been discussing such a possibility for a long time already. A similar scenario is possible in relations of the EU, Ukraine, Moldavia and Belarus, and this possibility was mentioned in the EU strategy for the above-mentioned countries, proposed by Poland.

The Ukrainian official mentioned mighty economic unions being created in the world and stressed that Ukraine should conduct active policies both in the West and in the East so as to avoid the necessity of joining such unions on dictated terms in the future.