Ukraine
is ready to support Russia`s bid to join the World Trade Organization
(WTO), the Ukrainian prime minister said on Thursday."Ukraine
will fully support Russia`s desire to join the WTO," Yulia Tymoshenko
said at her meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the
Moscow Region.
Russia started WTO accession talks in 1995. The
latest round of talks with the 153-member global trade organization
collapsed in late July, but the top negotiator, Maxim Medvedkov, who is
the director of the Russian Economic Development Ministry`s trade talks
department, said then that the parties could still return to the
negotiating table later this year.
Ukraine joined the WTO in May. The agreement of all 153 WTO members is necessary for a state to join the global trade body.
Medvedkov
also earlier said the absence of diplomatic relations with Georgia
would not pose an obstacle for Russia`s entry into the World Trade
Organization.
"There are a lot of countries in the world that
do not maintain diplomatic relations. For example, this concerns the
United States and Cuba, Armenia and Turkey, and many other countries.
Therefore, the absence of bilateral relations, in principle, does not
affect membership," he said.
Georgia, which became a WTO member
in 2000, broke off diplomatic relations with Russia after Moscow
recognized the independence of Georgia`s breakaway republics of South
Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russia is the only major world economy still outside the WTO.
