ANKARA - Turkey and Ukraine signed six agreements on Tuesday aimed at boosting bilateral cooperation in the fields of energy, nuclear technology, railway transport and combating cross-border crime.
Officials from the two countries signed the agreements after talks here between visiting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
"These agreements will strengthen the legal basis required for further improving our cooperation in every field," Sezer said.
Ukraine wants to export electricity to Turkey across the Black Sea, which separates the two countries.
It also hopes Turkey could serve as an alternative route for oil and gas to Ukraine, whose imports currently come mostly from Russia and Turkmenistan.
Turkey is involved in several big international projects to carry oil and gas from the Caspian to the Western markets, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which was inaugurated last month.
Yushchenko said that the two countries were determined to boost trade and set the target at 10 billion dollars for 2010, more than triple the current volume of bilateral trade.
"There is an excellent basis for the development of our relations," he said.
Turkish and Ukrainian officials will also start working on an arrangement to ease the visa regime between the two countries, he said.
Yushchenko was scheduled to meet other Turkish officials later in the day before heading to Istanbul on Wednesday to meet Turkish business leaders.
06/07/2005 12:25 GMT