Today, on November 18, Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk met with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who is paying an official visit to Ukraine.

“This is a historic visit at such a high level for the first time in 11 years. It is a signal to enhance cooperation between our countries in a number of sectors. It is all the more important to hear from you, Prime Minister, the reassurances of support by the Czech Republic for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. In my turn, I assure you of the irreversibility of the course of Ukraine towards joining the NATO and the EU,” Oleksiy Honcharuk emphasized.

Oleksiy Honcharuk accentuated that among the potentially important areas of cooperation between Ukraine and the Czech Republic is cooperation in the military-industrial sphere. The Czech Republic is among the few countries to remove all barriers to the supplies of arms and military equipment to Ukraine and enters TOP 4 countries (along with the United Kingdom, Canada, France) granting Ukraine special licenses for export of military and dual-use goods.

“There is a number of enterprises in Ukraine producing goods for the military-industrial complex, we are ready to cooperate with Czech partners and we know about the plans of certain Czech companies to work in this field in Ukraine. Hence, we welcome these plans, in particular for the construction of factories and enterprises in Ukraine”, emphasized Oleksiy Honcharuk.

Moreover, the Prime Minister of Ukraine noted cooperation in the energy sector is also critical.

“Ukraine prolongs a policy to integrate with the European community at various levels, as documented in the relevant documents. I assure by 2023 we will ensure integration of Ukrainian power grid into the European electricity transmission system. This is our current agenda that we confirm and we express our commitment to implement successfully,” Oleksiy Honcharuk emphasized.

However, the Prime Minister of Ukraine drew attention to the alarming situation in the energy security sector in Europe with regards to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

Nord Stream 2 is a political project that is strategically aimed at increasing European countries' dependence on Russia and will jeopardize energy security and energy stability across Europe. It is a rather serious precedent that will cause dangerous effects,” the Prime Minister of Ukraine emphasized.

The Head of the Government of Ukraine reminded of record volumes of mutual trade between Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

“Trade between Ukraine and the Czech Republic has reached record levels for all years of independence: in 8 months of 2019 foreign trade turnover reached a record $ 1.4 billion and increased by almost 14%. We are ready to improve the performance on our part and I hope that the Czech business will advance activities both in terms of trade and investment in Ukraine. The Government, for its part, expresses readiness to fully support,” Oleksiy Honcharuk emphasized.