NAIROBI (Sputnik) – Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev and EU Commissar for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom confirmed their plans on Friday to participate in the trilateral ministerial meeting on implementing the economic part of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement scheduled for December 21 in Brussels.
“We have confirmed that this meeting will take place and we’ll look at the report by experts that is currently being agreed upon. Then we will define the future likelihood of the situation in line with the signing of the agreement between Ukraine and the EU,” Ulyukayev told journalists after a meeting with Malmstrom on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Nairobi.
Russia has repeatedly expressed concern over Ukraine's free trade deal with the European Union, stating this could lead to an uncontrolled flow of European goods into the Russian market.
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree suspending Russia’s implementation of the Commonwealth of Independent States free trade deal with Ukraine effective January 1, 2016. The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, an economic component of EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, comes into effect on the same date.
