““This year we can add more countries to our reliable partners, in particular Syria””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
He said this after the report of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiga and Ministers of Agricultural Policy and Food Vitaliy Koval about their talks in Syria and Lebanon.
“This year we can add more countries to our reliable partners, in particular Syria. We are preparing to restore diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organizations. I want to thank our intelligence for the security basis of these contacts. As a result of the visit, we will also increase trade with Lebanon: now with this country we have 400 million dollars of our agricultural exports alone, and we are preparing to increase it at least twice. There will also be more activity in work with Africa in the 25th year, and each such new partnership means greater opportunities for our diplomacy and greater opportunities for our economy,” Zelenskyy said.
According to the president, he instructed the minister of foreign affairs to prepare “some specific” agreements with African countries. Zelenskyi did not provide details of these agreements.
On December 23, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, announced that he had instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to develop contacts with the new Syrian government. He also added that Ukraine will support Syria’s food security, and informed that Ukraine sent 500 tons of wheat flour to Syria as part of our humanitarian program “Grain from Ukraine” in cooperation with the UN World Food Program.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andriy Sybiga, visited Syria on December 30.
Ukraine severed diplomatic relations with Syria without severing consular relations in June 2022 after Damascus’ decision to recognize the so-called “independence” of the occupied territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
At the beginning of December, the regime of President Bashar Assad was overthrown in Syria, and power passed to the rebel forces led by the Islamist organization “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham”. Assad and his family, who ruled Syria as a dynasty for more than 50 years, were forced to flee to Russia.