Ukraine and Kazakhstan will strengthen their cooperation on energy, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

He described energy cooperation between he two states as being promising, adding that Ukraine needs coal, as well as cooperation in the oil and gas industry.

"We're waiting for a representative of KazMunaiGas to Ukraine to analyze joint access to the markets of companies that produce, extract and refine oil," Poroshenko said at a business forum in Astana last week.

He added that both sides agreed that a powerful and effective transit network will be created and beneficial tariffs to make the Kazakhstan-Ukraine route a basic element of the Silk Road will be agreed upon.

"We speak about agricultural engineering, we speak about the development of agriculture and food industry, IT industry, joint extraction on the territory of Kazakhstan by Ukrainian companies and we’re waiting for Kazakh gas and oil companies [to come to] our oil and gas fields," Poroshenko said.