ASTANA (TCA) — Ukraine says it will for the first time ship goods to Kazakhstan along a route bypassing Russia, due to the Kremlin’s trade embargo on Kiev, RFE/RL reported.
Russia this month imposed fresh sanctions on Ukraine in response to its decision to enter a much disputed free-trade and political Association Agreement with the European Union.
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pyvovarskiy said on January 13 that “experimental” deliveries via Georgia and Azerbaijan would be shipped to Kazakhstan on January 15.
“This Silk Road will not only give Ukrainian goods alternative access to markets in which we have historically been very strong, but also create a new [trade] route between Asia and Western Europe,” Pyvovarskiy said in televised remarks during a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
The Dutch international banking corporation ING predicts that Ukraine will become Kazakhstan’s third-largest source of imports by 2017.
ING said that Kazakhstan primarily imports Ukrainian vehicles and transport equipment.
On January 12, Presidents of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Petro Poroshenko, had a telephone conversation during which they discussed the issue of Ukrainian goods delivery to Kazakhstan in connection with Russia’s ban on the transit of goods from Ukraine. The parties discussed bilateral cooperation under new conditions of using alternative trade routes, the Kazakh presidential press service said.
The press service of the Ukrainian President said on January 12 that the President of Kazakhstan plans to pay an official visit to Ukraine.
