Philippines–Ukraine relations

The Philippines recognized Ukraine's independence on January 22, 1992 and formal relations began on April 7, 1992. From April 1992 until June 1993 the bilateral relations between the two country were maintained through the Philippines' embassy in Poland. Since 1993 the Philippines' embassy in Moscow maintains jurisdiction over its country's relations with Ukraine. Since December 2004 Ukraine maintained its relations with the Philippines through its embassy in Tokyo in Japan. Prior to December 2004, Ukraine maintained relations with the Philippines through its embassies in Indonesia and Vietnam.[1]

In April 1997 a Ukrainian parliamentary delegation to Manila signed an interparliamentary cooperation agreement.[2] In July 2003 Philippine Vice-President Teofisto Guingona met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoliy Zlenko in Manila.[3] At the meeting they signed a protocol on political cooperation.[3] In June 2005 the Philippine Speaker Jose de Venecia led a House delegation to Ukraine, and met with Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko and a range of other top officials.[4] They discussed Christian-Muslim interfaith dialogue, the development of two energy plants in the Philippines by the Ukrainian company Sukhin Energy Incorporated,[5] and a debt conversion initiative.[4]

The Philippines and Ukraine have six bilateral agreements in place:[6]

• An exchange of letters between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines (entered into force 7 April 1992).
• A memorandum on cooperation between the Verkhovna Rada and the Philippine House of Representatives (14 April 1997).
• A protocol on political consultations between the respective Foreign Affairs bodies (14 July 2003).
• A memorandum between the State Committee of Financial Monitoring of Ukraine and the Financial Surveillance Body of the Philippines to exchange the financial information regarding money laundering (12 March 2008).
• An agreement between the Council of Ministers of Crimea and the Government of Cebu Province about trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation (26 November 2010).[7]
• A memorandum on cooperation between the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine and the Foreign Service Institute of the Philippines (6 December 2010).

Bilateral trade between Ukraine and the Philippines amounted to $20.21 million in a six-month period in 2012.[8] The Philippine negative trade balance for the same period amounted to $15.59 million.[8] Among Ukraine's main export to the Philippines during the period are feed wheat,[9] coloring materials, machinery for metal stamping, forging, bending, alignment, cutting, press, whey, ammonia.[8]

The Philippines imports from Ukraine during the same six month in 2012 amounted to $17.90 million.[8] Among the Philippines main import from Ukraine are electrical products, electronic integrated circuits and electronic micro modules. Among the Philippines main export to Ukraine are bells, gongs, statuettes, frames and mirrors, of base metal, printing equipment, printing machines, auxiliary machine for printing, automatic data processing machines and units thereof and parts, raw tobacco, tobacco.[8]