President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau met with representatives of Canadian business in Toronto, the presidential press service reports.
“The participants of the meeting paid attention to the prospects for investing in Ukraine and the necessary prerequisites to start this process before the end of the war,” the statement said.
Zelenskyy thanked Canada for the assistance Ukraine receives and emphasized the importance of implementing projects to restore the country.
“We are very interested in your coming to Ukraine, very interested in the restoration of Ukraine – this is what we need today. These are all areas in which you are strong. We are very interested in your work, business and technology,” Zelenskyy said.
For his part, Trudeau emphasized the importance of economic support for Ukraine.
“A lot needs to be done in terms of humanitarian and military assistance. But there is also a lot to be done economically. So I am glad that we can discuss this with President Zelensky,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
It is noted that the meeting was attended by the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, his deputy Rostyslav Shurma, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada Chrystia Freeland, President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Oleksandra Chyczij, heads of companies operating in the investment, banking, export, construction, energy, technology, etc.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Ukraine on March 21 at the invitation of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and then travel to the Republic of Poland on March 22, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
According to the Foreign Ministry website, Prime Minister Kishida will express his respect to President Zelensky for the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people who have stood up for their country.
“Prime Minister Kishida, as Japan and the G7, which Japan chairs, will explicitly convey our solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine,” the ministry said.
Kishida will also strongly oppose Russian armed aggression and reiterate his determination to uphold an international order based on the rule of law.
In Poland, the leaders will reaffirm their commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation as well as cooperation in international forums, including in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, based on a strategic partnership with Poland.
Kishida will return to Japan on the morning of March 23.
The Verkhovna Rada has supported the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov, a member of the European Solidarity faction, Oleksiy Honcharenko, said.
“Fedorov will be appointed to a new position. Preliminarily, he will become Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Development of Education, Science and Technology – Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. His candidacy for the new position will be submitted to the Rada at the next meeting,” the parliamentarian wrote in the Telegram channel on Monday.
At the same time, a member of the faction “Golos” Yaroslav Zheleznyak specified that the decision to resign Fedorov supported 298 people’s deputies at the plenary session on March 20.
Fedorov held the post of Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine since March 4, 2020.
As previously reported by Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, Fedorov will be engaged in a number of other areas, in addition to digitalization. “His future position is Deputy Prime Minister for innovation, development of education, science and technology – Minister of digital transformation of Ukraine,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.
The head of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, withdrew her candidacy for the election of prime minister, so her rival Rishi Sunak automatically becomes the new head of the Conservative Party and, accordingly, the prime minister of Great Britain, the leadership of the British Conservative Party reported on Monday.
“Rishi Sunak has been chosen as the new leader of the Conservative Party,” said Sir Graham Brady, head of the House of Commons “1922 committee” that was in charge of the process of choosing a new leader.
Mordaunt, for her part, tweeted that she had withdrawn her candidacy for the prime ministerial election and said that thus “we have chosen our new prime minister”, noting that she fully supports Sunak.
Rishi Sunak was born in Southampton to a doctor and pharmacist on May 12, 1980. He graduated from the University of Oxford where he studied philosophy, politics and economics, and later received an MBA from Stanford University. There, the politician met his future wife Akshata Murthy, the daughter of the co-founder of the Indian multinational IT company Infosys, billionaire Narayana Murthy. Sunak managed to work in one of the largest investment banks in the world Goldman Sachs Group and hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund Management.
In 2015, Sunak won the parliamentary elections in the Richmond constituency in West Yorkshire. He first entered the government under Theresa May in 2018, receiving the position of Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Sunak voted three times for May’s EU Brexit deal, but it was rejected in 2019, largely leading to her resignation and the rise to power of Boris Johnson.
After May’s resignation, Sunak supported Johnson as the candidate for leader of the Conservative Party. Johnson came to power in 2019 and appointed Sunak to the post of deputy head of the Treasury, but already in 2020 he went on a promotion and headed the Treasury, replacing Sajid Javid in this post.
On July 5, 2022, Sunak became the second minister after Javid to resign in connection with the Johnson scandals. Three days later, Sunak announced his candidacy for the post of the new leader of the Tories and, accordingly, the Prime Minister of Great Britain. The former head of the Ministry of Finance gained the majority of votes in all rounds of the election of the head of the Conservative Party, but in the final round he lost to former Foreign Minister Liz Truss. Truss took office as prime minister, but was able to hold it for only 45 days, after which she was forced to resign.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal is on a working visit to the German capital Berlin.
“We are working today in Berlin, we have a busy agenda. We started it with the opening of the 5th Ukrainian-German Economic Forum with Chancellor Olaf Scholz,” Shmygal wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to him, during his speech, he focused on the prospects that will open up for European business in the process of implementing the Ukraine Recovery Plan.
In particular, we are talking about the military-industrial complex.
“We aim to create a high-tech military-industrial complex, in particular, thanks to the transfer of European and world military technologies, attracting investment in design development and building military production,” he wrote.
Also, the prime minister said at the forum that the country has a significant potential for the supply of “clean” energy and Europe’s largest gas storage facilities.
“Digital technologies. In the future, Ukraine can turn into a digital hub of Asian and European backbone Internet traffic. The agricultural sector, whose investment potential is at least $34 billion. Green Deal. We see ourselves as a climate modernized state. European investment in pure Ukrainian production is a step to the implementation of the green transition,” Shmyhal said.
Ex-Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson said that he was not going to run for office because he would not be able to effectively govern the state in the absence of a united party in parliament.
“I passed the very high barrier of 102 support votes, but I came to the conclusion that this is simply not the right time,” Johnson was quoted as saying by Sky News.
He added that he had contacted Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt with an offer to “unite in the national interest.” Johnson also noted that he does not exclude the possibility of his return to big politics.
At the moment, among the Conservative MPs, Sunaka is in the lead with 144 supporters. It is noted that on Sunday several longtime allies of Johnson, including Swell Braverman and Steve Baker, supported Sunak.
