Ukraine must step up Eurasian cooperation while remaining pro-EU - Yanukovych
KYIV. March 30 (Interfax) - Ukraine can claim the role of a communicator among influential world centers, said Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukraine must step up its cooperation with the "Eurasian region (the former USSR)" while maintaining a course toward European integration, he told a conference on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Institute of Strategic Research in Kyiv on Friday.
"We must set ourselves an ambitious task: to merge our Euro-integration aspirations with global partnership plans so that Ukraine can fully claim the role of some sort of a communicator among global centers of influence," Yanukovych said.
This status will enable Ukraine to join "the highest league" of economically developed nations, he said.
Ukraine would like to cooperate with countries both in the Eurasian and Pacific regions, Yanukovych said. "We must step up cooperation with the Eurasian countries, the Pacific Ocean basin, fast growing countries. The Pacific Ocean basin is no doubt very interesting to us, as are organizations such as the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), which are now increasingly acquiring bigger weight," Yanukovych said.
Therefore, it is important for Ukraine to have the support of its national scientific elite, the Ukrainian president said.