Jordan, Ukraine look forward to strengthening bilateral ties

AMMAN — Jordan and Ukraine see “eye to eye” on various international issues and are keen on increasing cooperation in various fields, especially in higher education, according to Ukrainian ambassador in Amman, Serhiy Pasko.

The two countries, which initiated diplomatic ties in 1992, enjoy solid relations, with a large room for strengthening cooperation in the areas of tourism, commerce and pharmaceuticals, the ambassador said in an interview with The Jordan Times on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of independence celebrated by the embassy on Tuesday.

Jordan and Ukraine have similar views on many different international issues and support each other at international organisations.

“We support Arab causes and the Jordanian stance on various issues in the international arenas and we will continue to do so,” the ambassador said.

He highlighted the field of higher education as a key sector that is witnessing an increasing growth. 

Currently, there are 2,500 Jordanian students majoring mostly in medical fields in Ukrainian universities. “We have high quality medical education and our universities, which are 250 years old, are very affordable,” Pasko said.

The diplomat added that there are around 3,000 Jordanian medical doctors currently working in the Kingdom who are graduates from Ukrainian universities.

Some 5,000 Ukrainian nationals are living in Amman, 2,000 of whom are Ukrainian women married to Jordanians and who started families and “live happily in the Kingdom”, he said.

There are also around 5,000 Jordanians living in Ukraine, some of whom work while others are relatives of the Jordanian students at the Ukrainian universities.

The ambassador said that Ukraine was keen on increasing the number of scholarships given to Jordanian students. Currently, a total of four scholarships are offered to Jordanian students.

“This is not enough, we need to have much more. We started discussions on this and will continue discussing the increase of scholarships to 15 to 20,” he stated.

On trade exchange, he noted that it reached $106.5 million in the first 8 months of this year, $101 million of which are Ukrainian exports to Jordan which include steel, wheat, milk, honey, barley, among others.

Trade exchange at the end of 2017 is expected to be 8 per cent higher than 2016, he said.

Jordanian exports to Ukraine are mostly pharmaceuticals, he noted, saying: “Jordan has great pharmaceutical companies and they are looking forward to increasing cooperation with Ukraine in this regard.” 

Calling Jordan as a “museum under open air”, he said that the country is home to many touristic and religious sites worth visiting.

Some 10,000 Ukrainian tourists visit Jordan each year and around 3,000 Jordanians visit Ukraine every year.

“We will continue efforts to increase tourism on both sides,” he said.