On Monday, Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, met Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada

25 October 2010, 18:08

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On Monday, Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, met Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada.

 

V. Lytvyn highly appreciated the level of the political dialogue between Ukraine and Canada. The Head of the Parliament emphasised that the Prime Minister was not only the Chairman of the Government of the state that had special partner relations with Ukraine, but also his colleague to deal with the parliamentary matters.

 

V. Lytvyn also called for strengthening the interparliamentary part of the bilateral relations on all the levels, and appreciated the visit of Peter Milliken, Speaker of the House of Commons, to Ukraine last year. The Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament also named the Ukrainian-Canadian Parliamentary Program as a unique one lasting for 19 years and giving an opportunity for the young generation to work in the offices of the parliamentarians and participate in the organizational work of democratic institutions.

 

The Head of the Parliament mentioned active participation of the Ukrainian community in the political life of Canada.

 

Discussing the bilateral cooperation in economic sphere, V. Lytvyn expressed his hopes that the visit of S. Harper would give impetus to the negotiations on the free trade agreement. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also expressed his gratitude to the Canadian authorities for the technical assistance within the program of the Canadian International Development Agency, inclusion of our state into the register of its 20 general partners and the contribution of Canada into the overcoming the Chornobyl disaster consequences.

 

V. Lytvyn called for boosting bilateral cooperation in the cultural and humanitarian sectors.

 

At the request of the Canadian Prime Minister, V.Lytvyn briefed on the political situation in Ukraine, in particular, the progress of the election campaign in the regions.

 

"Analysis of the current situation, alignment of political forces and my personal conversations with people prove that there are no deviations from the democratic line", the Head of the Parliament declared. According to him, elections "will strengthen the dialogue and offer the principles to meet the demands of both the political circles and the society."

 

V. Lytvyn emphasised that all the talks about the possible fraud of election returns and use of lobbying forces "are the part of the election tactics." The Head of the Parliament stressed that all the campaign participants shall observe the legislation to prevent any problems in the election process.