A preliminary Memorandum was
signed with Lithuanian partners on their consent to connect the route of Viking
train with a new Silk Road: "This means that in the
framework of our cooperation with the European Union and the implementation of
the Agreement on Free Trade Area to the Silk Road there will be connected
not justUkraine, not just Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and
China, but also states of the European Union", stressed Prime
Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Tuesday, February 2, during a meeting dedicated
to completion of the test run of the first cargo freight train connecting
Ukraine and China.
“From Klaipeda Viking train will
also have an opportunity to transport cargoes directly to
China, bypassing Russia," he added.
"If two years ago we had
been told that we would do without Russian gas, we would no
longer be dependent on Russia’s energy sources, as we had been dependent throughout the
entire history of Ukraine's independence, that we would find a
way to circumvent Russian trade bans and build an alternative transit
route, few would have believed it. But now it is a reality. We
buy gas from the member states of the European Union. Russia has banned
our transit, but we have found an alternative way", stressed the
Head of Government.
"Besides, we attracted
our western partners to take an active part in trade and economic cooperation
with those countries that belong to the so-called CIS", said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
He congratulated Minister
of Infrastructure of Ukraine Andrii Pyvovarsky and the whole Government’s team
on the successful run of the pilot train: "Next, we should work
with business, work with our European partners. And it has to become
a commonplace thing – the fact that we have an alternative
route, and any attempt of Russia to impose either trade or transit
embargo against Ukraine will always get an
appropriate response".
"The more challenges we face, the
more problems we face, the stronger we become. A striking example is the
fact that we are capable today to build an independent economic policy. We
have succeeded, with the support of our European partners, in proving that
we can find ways out of most difficult situations. And we should
furtherdemonstrate our economic, political and financial independence. And what
is more – our transit independence",summed up Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
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