Foreign Minister Poroshenko visits Oman and Qatar

On February 21-22. Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Petro Poroshenko headed a delegation including Ministry officials, members of the Verkhovna Rada and businessmen on a working visit to the Sultanate of Oman and the State of Qatar.

According to the Ministry press service, the visit was planned and aimed at fulfilling one of the priorities of MFA activities in 2010: "To promote the country's economic interests, to commercialize external policy, and to establish the conditions to attract investment to Ukraine."

The purpose of the visit was to spur the trend towards growth in political dialog at all levels, to expand trade and commerce, to increase technological and humanitarian cooperation, to establish a contractual basis for biletarial relations, among others by liberalizing visa regimes.

The program of this visit by the Minister to the Persian Gulf region includes meetings with top officials of Oman and Qatar. The head of Ukraine's Foreign Ministry also held meetings with local business circles, which, it is anticipated, will attract capital from both countries to undertake promising commercial and investment projects in Ukraine, including in the preparations for Euro-2012 Football Championship. Another purpose was to consolidate efforts on diversifying sources of fuels in Ukraine.

The Sultanate of Oman and the State of Qatar are influential countries in the Persian Gulf region with considerable investment capital at their disposal, in both the public and private sectors. Given their geographic position, deeper cooperation with the two countries is a priority for Ukraine at this time because they control key hubs on marine and air transport corridors.