Mr. Yushchenko, a celebrated Ukrainian politician who served as president from 2005 to 2010, gave Tasnim an interview during a visit to Tehran.
In his comments, the political figure put an emphasis on the establishment of strategic ties between Iran and Ukraine, saying the two nations are still unaware of one anothers enormous capacities.
Referring to the escalation of tensions between Kiev and Moscow and the opportunities for closer ties with other parties in the region, Mr. Yushchenko said Iran can fulfill many of Ukraines needs in the current situation.
For many years, our strategic partner for the energy sphere was the Russian Federation, but after Russia started aggression against Ukraine, we have overseen our priorities in this sphere. Right now, Ukraine has a new political team, a young team who is overseeing the political and energy strategical problems. In this situation we have to orient ourselves not with a country which has political motives and is right now outlining aggression against Ukraine, but we are looking at Iran as an extremely powerful country with extremely powerful resource base, and a country who is politically neutral to Ukraine, he explained.
He also noted that the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a lasting nuclear deal between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), has opened up unique opportunities for entire Europe and for Ukraine.
The two sides should try to combine the geopolitical placing of Ukraine and unique resourceful capabilities of Iran to create joint projects which should benefit both of the countries, he stressed, saying, Ukraine is a unique country with a population of 45 million which makes it one of the largest countries by population in Europe.
The ex-president then pointed to an agreement for creating a joint commission of high-level experts for discussion about joint projects that could be beneficial for Iran and Ukraine, joint strategies to expand Tehran-Kiev political cooperation, and projects that could be of benefit for a third party.
One of the main drawbacks of our cooperation right now is that we are not informed about each others possibilities as we could be, Yushchenko deplored.
He also pointed to his meeting with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh in Tehran, saying he has informed the Iranian minister that Ukraine is not only a very large market with 45 million people and we need lots of energy resources and petroleum and petrochemical products, we also hold Europes second largest oil and gas transportation system which could be used for the benefit of both sides.
Ukraine needs lots of things from Iran, but what is most important is that we can exchange scientific and technological developments, he underscored.
We can share our unique energy scientific research (with Iran), and Iran, in its turn, can share its own scientific research and technological developments with Ukraine, Yushchenko added.
According to the Ukrainian politician, the oil ministers of Iran and Ukrain have agreed to create a special working group of high-level experts that within 30 days will discuss all of the possible projects for joint collaboration in the future, which will be considered by the president of Ukraine in a month or so.
I want to underline that the Ukrainian authorities now, what they can offer to Iran is unique, and no other European country or Eastern country can offer that to Iran. It is extremely important I firmly believe that our cooperation should come up to the strategic level, and not only in the sphere of energy, he stressed.
Yushchenko further touched on Ukraines leadership in producing major agricultural products like wheat, barley and sunflower, adding, This is not the limit. We have unique space technologies, unique aircraft technologies, unique machine building and scientific and development research that we can share with Iran and cooperate in this sphere, on strategic level.
Ukraines Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has also said earlier that Iran can satisfy the East European nations need for energy.
Iran and Ukraine have common challenges in agriculture and economy, Klimkin said in an interview with the Tasnim News Agency in May, adding that Ukraine can help to ensure food security in Iran, while Iran can in turn help to provide Ukraines energy security.
By Tasnim News Agency
