Friday 17 / May / 2024
Muscat: Given the significant role played by the Sultanate of Oman in the Gulf region, it is important for Ukraine to facilitate and promote bilateral relations in mutually beneficial ways.
This was stated by Dr Maksym Subkh, Special Representative of Ukraine for the Middle East and Africa, who visited Oman recently.
In a statement released to the Omani media, he said Oman is one of Ukraine’s important partners in the Middle East and we pay much attention to the all-round development of bilateral relations, people-to-people ties and cooperation within the international
organisations.
“Personally, I am pleased to pay an official visit to Oman for the first time since taking office as the Special Representative. Your country is truly impressive; it represents an example of delicate balance between wise leadership, prudent policy-making and huge economic ambitions,” Dr Subkh.
“We have many opportunities and plans on how to turn our sincere intentions into a successful story of friendship and partnership,” he added. Regarding his visit to Oman and his experience here, Subkh said, “Personally, I am pleased to pay an official visit to Oman for the first time since taking office as the Special Representative. Your country is truly impressive; it represents an example of a delicate balance between wise leadership, prudent policy-making and huge economic ambitions.”
“We have many opportunities and plans on how to turn our sincere intentions into a successful story of friendship and partnership,” he added.
“We spare no efforts trying to strengthen our trade and economic cooperation with Oman. Notwithstanding the negative economic consequences of COVID-19 pandemic, our bilateral trade in 2020 increased by 21 percent and amounted to $107 million. It`s a highly positive trend but our real potential is still to be explored.
“And to show that our expectations are justified, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that during 2021, bilateral trade between Ukraine and Oman grew by more than 119 per cent, and amounted to $203 million,” Dr Subkh said.
He said, “We believe that there is still a substantial unlocked capacity for growth in the future. It is real and obvious that with the beginning of the war, our business slowed down, sometimes it stopped, but at the same time it quickly resumed and, in some cases, even increased in volumes. Hardships create new opportunities and experienced Ukrainian entrepreneurs are professionally taking advantage of them.”
Ukraine now takes all necessary measures in order to create opportunities for national exporters to have access to more foreign markets, especially related to the Global South region, he added.
Dr Subkh said, “We consider agriculture, construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, healthcare, information technologies and digital transformation as the most promising areas for our trade, economic and investment cooperation, as well as invite the Omani side to participate in privatisation processes in Ukraine.”
“We are convinced that holding regular contacts as well as establishing additional bilateral mechanisms and platforms of coordination and interaction like inter-parliamentary friendship groups, joint intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation and Ukrainian-Omani business council can provide a strong impetus to development of our relations and, in particular, clearly help to unleash their enormous potential.”
Dr Subkh said, “In this regard, we consider business-to-business connections to be of crucial importance in terms of promoting and accelerating our trade and economic partnership, especially taking into account the positive effect of the negotiations and presentation of Ukrainian manufacturers’ products at the Chamber of Commerce of Oman in recent years. We hope that our joint efforts on this track will benefit all the parties involved.”
Regarding the opening of the Embassy of Ukraine in Muscat. He said that, “At the end of 2022 the President of Ukraine took a decision to open the Embassy of Ukraine in Muscat. This step is important for shifting our relations to a qualitatively new level. Also it is a direct signal to our Omani friends: we are seriously committed to leave our footprint in Oman and turn to the next page of our cooperation.”
“We believe that mutual establishment of permanent diplomatic missions is of crucial importance for our mutual future and Ukraine would welcome the decision of the Sultanate of Oman on opening its Embassy in Kyiv as well,” Dr Subkh further added.
He said that in Ukraine, we are consistently monitoring the security, political, social and economic developments in the Gulf and entire Middle East region and, thus, underline the role which Oman plays within the framework of promoting and strengthening peace and stability in the region, that goes fully in line with Omani tested and trusted mediation experience in supporting solution of different conflicts and crises.
The visit of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Sultanate of Oman in January 2020 gave a significant boost to further systematic and institutionalised development of our bilateral relations in various fields. In recent years, we have been holding regular consultations and contacts between Foreign Ministries of Ukraine and Oman, which make it possible to maintain close coordination on a wide range of bilateral and international agenda issues that are of mutual interest, Dr Subkh said.
Elaborating on the post-war economic recovery of Ukraine, he said, “Despite the negative effects of Ukraine’s economic development, I believe that we should prepare the groundwork for the full-scale restoration of trade cooperation with the countries of the region, as well as the attraction of their investment potential for the restoration of Ukraine’s destroyed infrastructure.”
The post-war rebuilding of Ukraine’s economy should provide for extensive economic and social recovery, and should not be limited to physical reconstruction of infrastructural assets.
As the President of Ukraine has stated, the economic recovery of Ukraine will be the largest economic project in Europe. And we have the honour to invite our Omani partners to take advantage of such a great opportunity to participate in mutually beneficial investment initiatives, he added.
Speaking about global food security, Dr Subkh said, “Ukraine has proven its role as a reliable food security guarantor committed to all of its obligations and has asserted The Black Sea Grain Initiative together with the UN and Turkey.”
In November, President Zelenskyy launched the initiative of 18.4 million tonnes of food have already been shipped to the most vulnerable countries. The initiative allows direct purchase of agricultural products from Ukraine by participating states and the transfer of Ukrainian food products to the countries in need.
To date, more than 30 countries have joined the humanitarian programme, which has accumulated more than $200 million in donations. Ukraine’s goal is to provide at least 5 million people with grain by the end of spring this year. Ukraine is committed to fulfilling its obligations and is continuing to ship agricultural products to ensure global food security and price stability, he further added.
Dr Subkh further elaborated that, “As a Special Representative of Ukraine for the Middle East and Africa I am a specially authorised person entrusted with facilitating the coordination of the actions of the executive authorities regarding the development of cooperation between Ukraine and the states of the Middle East and Africa.”
He said, “What I have seen and learned during the visit to Muscat filled me with more confidence that Ukraine and the Sultanate of Oman enjoy massive potential in various fields of cooperation, which has to be exploited and realised through our mutual efforts for the benefit of our nations.”
