Ukraine seeks to continue fruitful talks with Israel on signing the free trade area (FTA) agreement despite a demarche of Tel-Aviv with regard to support of the UN Security Council Resolution on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem by the representative of Kyiv, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Ukraine's Trade Representative Natalia Mykolska has said.

"These talks [on FTA] are always base on the economic and business interest. Today Israel approved the holding of the next round of consultations in Kyiv late January and early February. We do not have other information," she said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Mykolska believes that the FTA talks are mutually beneficial for the two countries.

Israel is a member of the Pan-Euro-Med [the system of Pan-Euro-Mediterranean cumulation of origin] that we are joining. In the context of their and our agreements with the EU our FTA agreement with them could form the chains of added value in this triangle for us," she said, presenting more arguments in favor of continuation of work on FTA with Israel.

She said that Israel requires new markets, as competition on the EU market would grow.

"I think that the FTA agreement with Israel will be one of the priorities for next year. We will work on it, as we see the interest for us and Israeli business," she said.

As for the course of the talks on the possibility of creating FTA with Turkey, she said that they are at the stage of working contact with the negotiation team of Turkey to clarify and arrange the format of the next phase of the talks and understand what format is acceptable for Turkey.

"We have not received the final decision on the format of the next round," Mykolska said.