“Norway is interested in deepening cooperation with Ukraine. Our common task is to fill such a partnership with concrete content”, - pointed out Mr. Borge Brende, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Norway on July, 6 during his talks with Mr. Pavlo Klimkin, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Highly praising the current state of bilateral interaction, the Ministers agreed to prepare a comprehensive bilateral Action Plan, which would, inter alia, provide for increasing of Norway’s practical assistance in implementation of systemic reforms in Ukraine. In this regard priority was paid to the judicial system, Ukraine’s penitentiary service reform, field of energy efficiency, fiscal service.

Minister Pavlo Klimkin expressed his gratitude for the tangible financial and technical assistance of Norway, including the one for solving the problems of the internally displaced citizens of Ukraine. In addition, the decision of Norway on implementation of Norwegian-American demining project was highly appreciated. Minister Børge Brende positively evaluated the state of implementation of reforms in Ukraine and underlined that Ukrainian economy growth indexes are first clear indicators of the effectiveness of these reforms which is extremely important for the investors.

During the negotiations significant attention was drawn to the state of the implementation of the Minsk agreements. The Norwegian Minister stressed that the position of his country remains unchanged – only with the withdrawal by Russia of its troops from the territory of the occupied Donbas, after termination by Moscow of supplying the military equipment to the region of the conflict, as well as financial aid to the separatists, could the preconditions for holding local elections in Donbas be created. Ministers also expressed common thought that international sanctions against Russia is an important instrument of pressure on the Kremlin for returning Russia to international legal framework.