Ukrainian President to visit China this year

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will pay a state visit to China in 2013, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara said Tuesday.

"We will prepare this year's president's state visit to China. I hope that the Chinese leadership during the current year will also visit Ukraine," Kozhara told a press conference.

Kozhara expressed hope that the second meeting of the intergovernmental commission between Ukraine and China will be held in the near future.

The foreign minister spoke highly of Ukraine-China ties, saying that economic relations between the two countries have been developing dynamically and bilateral trade exceeded 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2012.

The upcoming visit will mark the second time the Ukrainian president will pay a state visit to China. President Yanukovych paid his first visit to China in September 2010.