Following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the newly independent republics were mostly deprived of their economic and financial support and urgently needed economic and trade links with outside world to make ends meet.

The Islamic Republic was the first country to establish economic and commercial ties with the newly independent countries in the Central Asia and Caucasus. Such relations greatly expanded during the past decade, going beyond economic and commercial areas and entering new fields of cooperation, particularly in the oil and gas sector and technical sphere.

Of these countries, Ukraine in particular enjoys exemplary relations with the Islamic Republic in several areas of cooperation. Besides trade and commercial links between Tehran and Kiev, the two countries are also involved in a project to build a gas pipeline to transfer Iranian natural gas to Ukraine and from there to Europe.

Furthermore, the two countries have had intensive cooperation in technical sphere during the past few years, which has now resulted in the manufacture of a passenger airliner, christened Iran-140, capable of carrying some 52 passengers. The cornerstone for this technical cooperation was laid in 1993, when the two countries signed a significant joint venture contract.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko arrived here on Tuesday to be present at the test flight of the airplane in Shiraz along with his Iranian host, First Vice President Hassan Habibi.

According to the agreement, Ukrainian and Iranian experts will manufacture two planes this year and 12 others by 2004.

The vast cooperation between Iran and newly independent countries bears witness to the fact that the regional countries are well capable of fulfilling their economic, commercial and technical requirements and achieving self-sufficiency with no need for interference from outsiders in this strategic region.