Energy ties have the potential to strengthen under a newly-minted trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine, ministers said Monday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Groysman, signed a free-trade agreement in Kiev, which both sides said provides new opportunities from defense to energy.

"By improving market access and creating more predictable conditions for trade, the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement will generate new opportunities for Canadians and Ukrainians alike," Canadian Minister for International Trade Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.

Bilateral trade last year increased nearly 14 percent last year to around $213 million, covering exports ranging from pharmaceuticals to coal.

Canada relies heavily on the North American market for exports of oil and natural gas and has been developing plans to tap new markets by building ports for liquefied natural gas, which offers more market maneuverability than conventional pipeline links.

A former Soviet republic, Ukraine is closely bound to Russia through natural gas pipeline arteries running through the country to Europe. Europe gets about a quarter of its gas needs met by Russia, though most of the pipelines delivering that gas run through Ukraine.

European Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete and Vice President Maros Sefcovic in May led a delegation to Washington D.C. to meet with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Secretary of State John Kerry to review bilateral energy concerns.

For U.S. allies in Europe, the abundance of natural gas from domestic shale basins could be used as a tool to break the Russian grip on the European economy. Canete said last year liquefied natural gas sourced from U.S. shale basins may present a source of diversity with the right infrastructure in place.

A special permit is needed to send natural gas to companies without a U.S. free trade agreement. The United States has no such agreements with its European allies.