The two countries are in a dynamic political dialogue, and determined for closer links in every field. Commerce is on a spectacular upswing. Bilateral trade turnover for last January into May came close to $6 billion - 40 per cent more than in the same months 2003, stressed our informant.
The negotiators also expect to take stock of formative developments for a quadripartite common economic space of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, and draft a package of related agreements.
The summit will gather in Yalta, Black Sea coastal spa in the Crimea. Dominating the agenda, as in previous summits, will be bilateral fuel-and-energy cooperation - in particular, petroleum piping, and activities of a Russo-Ukrainian-German consortium for development and management of the Ukrainian gas pipeline network.
Aerospace contacts are another major aspect of Russian-Ukrainian interaction. The summiteers will discuss implementation prospects for a number of ambitious projects.
The agenda will, presumably, include prospects for close links in the Azov-Kerch sea area, added our interviewee.
The negotiators will compare their stances on central international issues, as well.
Prominent on the visit schedule will be the two presidents' conference with spokesmen of the Russian and Ukrainian business communities. Moscow hosted a similar forum late in 2000, and Kharkov, Ukraine's principal industrial seat in the country's east, in December 2001. The two conferences gave start to a worthy feedback tradition involving political leaders, executives and entrepreneurs, remarked the Kremlin functionary.
President Putin had scheduled his visit for last week. A Ukrainian tragedy made him put it off with three days of national mourning as an industrial accident took many lives in the Krasnolimanskaya mine, Donetsk coal basin.
