(Ukrainian News Agency) – Ukraine is proposing Kazakhstan to return to the idea of creation of a grain pool of three countries (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia), Prime Minister Mykola Azarov’s press secretary, Vitalii Lukyanenko, has told journalists in Astana, Kazakhstan.

He remarks, the Ukrainian Prime Minister made this position in course of a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Karim Massimov. “We, the three countries, together yield twenty percent of the world export [of grain] and we will be reckoned with,” the press secretary quoted Azarov as saying.

In his words, at the meeting they discussed the whole range of bilateral cooperation, specifically cooperation in the outer space, atomic energy and transit industries. Lukyanenko says that they discussed questions of joint ventures and construction of factories as in Ukraine, so as in Kazakhstan. They also evoked pronounced initiatives on building a Kazakh oil refinery in Ukraine and a Kazakh grain terminal in a Ukrainian port.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Ukrainian Grain Association in 2009 said they considered as unprofitable for Ukraine creation of a grain pool with Russia and Kazakhstan. In 2007, the Russian Grain Union initiated establishment of a Black Sea Grain Pool, comprising Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, and with possible subsequent joining of other countries, such as Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.