UAE to open embassy in Kyiv says President Yushchenko

The United Arab Emirates will open their own embassy in the first half of 2010, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced in the capital of the Emirates.

“We have come to an agreement with the Emirates’ President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan about the UAE opening its embassy in Ukraine in the first half of 2010,” the Ukrainian Head of State told members of the local press.

According to Mr. Yushchenko, the opening of a diplomatic mission from the UAE in Ukraine’s capital will “serve to liven bilateral cooperation,” the Al Ittihad paper wrote on Tuesday.

Ukraine’s President arrived in the UAE on Monday for a two-day official visit to look at the prospects for developing bilateral relations, especially in terms of investment, tourism, agriculture, trade and commercial exchange.

BAM, an Emirates news agency, reported that President Yushchenko stated that overall trade turnover between the two countries had reached US $1.1 billion last year.

On Tuesday, the local agency, BAM, and UKRINFORM, a Ukrainian news agency, signed an agreement to exchange information in English gratis.