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 | Wednesday, April 19, 2000, updated at 08:54(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Putin Holds Key Talks in UkraineRussian President-elect Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday after meeting President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine that he wanted to raise relations with the former Soviet neighbour to a new level.Putin, fresh from talks in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is making his first trip abroad since winning the March presidential election, a trip during which he has tried to balance ties between West and East. In their talks Putin and Kuchma touched on problems related to Ukraine's US$1.4 billion debt for gas to Russia and other questions. "The solution of these issues should be aimed at one goal, to consolidate relations of friendship, cooperation and strategic partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine," Putin told a news conference. "(The solution) should help to bring our peoples closer and bring our relations to a qualitatively better level than the one which existed until now," he said. Putin was due later to fly south with Kuchma to Ukraine's Crimean peninsula to see Russia's Black Sea Fleet. "I believe the visit of the president of the Russian Federation will lay a serious groundwork for a strategic partnership," Kuchma said.
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