Russian, Ukrainian ministers to discuss cross-border cooperation.

KHARKOV, October 7 (itar-Tass) -- A meeting between Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukraine's Acting Foreign Minister Vladimir
Khadogiy, who are due to meet Wednesday in the northeast Ukrainian
industrialized city of Kharkov, is expected to give a new impetus to
cross-border regional cooperation between the two countries.
Governors of Russian and Ukrainian regions located across the border,
as well as officials from customs and migration agencies will also attend
the meeting.
One of the major issues the discussions will focus on is the shortage
of border crossing stations.
"The problem is a headache," Sergei Lavrov said after Tuesday's
consultations with Vladimir Khandogiy. "It worries us because it affects
directly the two countries' citizens."
"We'd like to have a sufficient enough number of border crossing
stations to ensure normal family, cultural and general human contacts," he
said. "These border posts should meet all the European standards."
Participants in the meeting are expected to give attention to
revitalization of contacts at the regional level.
The Kharkov region offers a good instance of mutually beneficial
cooperation and impressive prospects for the future in this sense, as it
has already tested multifarious opportunities for cooperation with the
neighboring Belgorod and Kursk regions of Russia. They account for almost
50% of all the exports from Kharkov.
The Kharkov region is also number three from the top on the list of
Ukraine's regions in terms of foreign investment, Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk
regions being number one and two respectively.
Lavrov said Tuesday that many problems of cross-border cooperation can
and must be solved with the aid of respective governmental departments.
A source on the Russian delegation told Itar-Tass in this connection
that contradictions between Russian and Ukrainian counterparts produce
really curious situations sometimes.
One of them is the outstanding problem over the quotas for fishing on
the Sea of Azov. The absence of decisions in that field has resulted in a
situation where the Azov roach that spawns by the eastern shores of the
sea is fished only by Russian fishery companies while the gobies that love
warm waters and inhabit the northern sector of the sea turn out only in
Ukrainian seines.