A Ukrainian delegation to India from Jan 12-13 was tasked with boosting trade ties that remained strong through 2018, as India cemented its position as one of Ukraine’s top export partners in the Asia-Pacific region.
At the so-called International Partnership Summit held in India’s western port city of Mumbai, the country’s largest and wealthiest city, Stepan Kubiv, Ukrainian vice-prime minister and minister for trade and economic development, led trade officials in talks with Indian counterparts.
He said on Facebook that 1,000 participants and delegates from 40 other countries, as well as the Indian hosts, were in attendance at the summit.
Kubiv claimed on Facebook that Ukraine’s trade turnover with India reached $2.3 billion through the first 10 months of 2018, $1.5 billion of that being sunflower oil exports, and that India had taken the number one spot for Ukrainian export locations to the Asia-Pacific region.
Ukrainian trade officials — including Kubiv — also recently said that total bilateral trade between Ukraine and China is likely to have passed $8.7 billion through 2018 and could pass $10 billion by the end of 2019, although most of that is Chinese exports to Ukraine.
Ukraine and India will also deepen their cooperation in the field of education, Stepan Kubiv also said in a Jan. 12 post on his Facebook page, adding that 6,200 Indian students currently study in Ukraine, the largest group of foreign students here. Ukraine’s Education Ministry puts the number much higher at 10,800.
In meetings with Indian ministers, Kubiv also said that Ukraine was ready to move beyond exporting agricultural products and could supply the country with industrial machinery, energy infrastructure equipment, and medical products.
The minister also said he gave multiple interviews to Indian media who are reportedly showing a keen interest in Ukraine.
“Ukraine has a wide range of projects in various areas that are attractive for raising investment and development of manufacturing… Such areas are agro-industry and energy, industry on the whole and aircraft engineering,” Kubiv said in a Jan. 14 statement.
