LISBON (Agencies) -- Visiting Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko signed Tuesday a series of accords with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates aiming to enhance bilateral-cooperation in national defense, air transportation and the fight against crime, Xinhua reported.

They also singed ""a route for the development of bilateral ties"" during their meeting, in the fields of economy, national security, justice, culture and science through political dialogue and other communication activities.
Military exchanges are aimed at ""improving the organization of the Ukrainian armed forces (and) their training for participation in UN peace operations,"" a statement released by the Portuguese government said.
""Lots of Portuguese companies are able to help Ukraine in many areas, including the organization of the Euro Cup 2012, since Portugal had the experience of hosting the Euro Cup 2004,"" the Portuguese officials said, adding ""the two sides will also boost commercial exchanges.""
Yushchenko has expressed his concern on the Ukrainian community living in Portugal and expects achieving an agreement on social security with them in September.
During the meeting, Yushchenko and Socrates also talked about Ukraine's intention to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU).
“We discussed in detail prospects for Ukraine’s admission to the EU and NATO,” Yushchenko said after his talks with Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva. “We always feel Portugal’s support on this question,” he added, Itar-Tass reported.
Cavaco Silva supported Yushchenko’s drive for NATO membership. “We know how much Mr Yushchenko has done for asserting democracy in Ukraine,” he said, adding, “Ukraine is on the good way both to the EU and NATO.”
At the same time, he could not say anything definite about the timeframe for Ukraine’s accession to the alliance and refused to confirm assertions that this may happen by the end of the year.
“The dialogue is evolving,” the Portuguese president said, referring to “positive talks” held recently by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Kiev.
Yushchenko assured Cavaco Silva that Ukraine fulfilled all agreement with the North Atlantic Alliance “in full” and hoped for reciprocity.
The two leaders also discussed the energy security of the European Union. According to Cavaco Silva, the energy issue has become one of the main issues for the EU in the current century.
Yushchenko promised that his country would continue working on further diversification of routes for energy supplies from former Soviet republics and referred to the Caspian and Black Sea projects and the Odessa-Brody pipeline as examples.
Ukraine became the 152nd country to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in May after a 14-year marathon negotiation.