Ukraine will intensify its participation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said during his meeting with Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly Sergei Mironov in St. Petersburg.

Volodymyr Lytvyn said Ukraine is interested in cooperation with CIS member states both bilaterally and in the multilateral format and thus is in favor of maintaining equal opportunities and rights of each of the CIS member states in making key decisions in the Commonwealth.

The basis of Ukraine's relations with CIS member states is economic and trade cooperation. By the end of 2010, CIS countries accounted for 40.2% of Ukraine's foreign trade turnover, the Verkhovna Rada chairman noted.

Mironov, in turn, stressed that an important component of inter-parliamentary relations is cooperation in the humanitarian sphere. A vivid illustration of this, he says, is holding in Ukraine and the Russian Federation of joint activities on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of reburial of Taras Shevchenko.

The sides discussed the state and prospects of Ukrainian-Russian cooperation and cooperation within international organizations, the Verkhovna Rada press service told UKRINFORM. Particular attention was paid to the inter-parliamentary component of bilateral relations. "We have every reason to be pleased with our cooperation at the interparliamentary level," Volodymyr Lytvyn said.

In St. Petersburg, Lytvyn is participating in the 36th plenary session of the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS countries and the international Scientific Conference in connection with the 65th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials.

UKRINFORM