KIEV, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday welcomed the decision of the Dutch Senate to ratify Ukraine-European Union (EU) Association Agreement, saying it will pave the way for comprehensive implementation of the deal.
"The Netherlands will soon convey the instrument of ratification to Brussels. Then, with its special decision, the Council of the EU will launch the implementation of the Association Agreement at full capacity," Poroshenko said in his address to the nation.
The treaty, which is now applied provisionally, has already brought benefits to the East European country, Poroshenko said, pointing that Ukraine's exports to the EU countries increased by almost 25 percent since partial implementation of the deal.
Earlier in the day, Dutch Senate, the upper house of the parliament of the Netherlands, ratified Ukraine-EU treaty despite the vast majority of Dutch voters rejecting it in a referendum in April 2016.
The Netherlands was the last country in the EU that ratified the deal with Ukraine on political, economic and a broad range of legislation and regulation topics.
Some parts of the Ukraine-EU treaty have been already provisionally applied since Nov. 1, 2014.
In the framework of the Association Agreement, in January 2016, Ukraine and the EU launched a free trade area which removed custom tariffs on over 90 percent of goods traded between the sides.
