ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma will visit Pakistan during the first quarter of 2003, when important economic and strategic cooperation agreements are likely to be signed between the countries, Ukraine’s Ambassador Volodymyr S. Ponomarenko told Dawn.

“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Pakistan was one of the new partners that Ukraine found and has cooperated with it very closely,” he said pointing to the collaboration on Al Khalid tanks.

The envoy said his country was eager to participate in the construction of the 1,500km Trans-Afghan gas pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan. Ukraine had tremendous experience in construction of such pipelines, he underlined.

He pointed out that the countries were exploring the possibility of joint ventures in the energy, railways, construction, science and technology, education and defence sectors. Other probable areas of cooperation could be, locomotive manufacturing, aircraft building, light and heavy mechanical engineering and manufacture of agricultural machinery.

He said Pakistan and Ukraine had begun negotiations for construction of energy systems in the Northern Areas and coastal regions. If materialized, those systems would provide cheap and environment-friendly sources of energy generation, he said.