French President Emmanuel Macron may visit Ukraine by the end of the first half of the year, said French Ambassador to Ukraine Etienne de Poncins.
“We do not have a date at the moment because of the pandemic. President Macron does not travel at the moment. He did not leave France since mid-December now. His last visit was to Brussels, not a bilateral one and not very far. I want to be very prudent, but my expectation is that this visit could occur by the end of the first semester,” the ambassador said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
De Poncins pointed out that there is a great need for this visit, since the last French president who officially visit Ukraine was Jacques Chirac in 1998.
“The principle of a visit is agreed, for as I have said there is a very good relationship between the two presidents and President Macron is very keen to come. President Zelenskyy confirmed several times the invitation. There is a lack of visits at the highest level between our two countries. The last French President who officially visited Ukraine was Jacques Chirac, in 1998. It was a very long time ago. Therefore, there’s a need for it. And there is a lot of substance for such a high level visit,” he stressed.
The ambassador noted that the visit will focus on bilateral programs, as well as the political dimension.
“About the substance, there will be a lot to focus on. There are some very important bilateral programs: helicopters, patrol boats, locomotives, water plant facilities in Mariupol. We have some other projects in Luhansk area. This is just for economy. The cultural, scientific, university and linguistic part is a big one too. I can tell you that if President Macron comes, he will be overloaded with projects and programs. Political dimension will obviously also be at the core of a presidential visit,” de Poncins said.
During the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Ukraine, several major contracts may be signed, in particular, an important contract with Alstom for the supply of electric locomotives, Ukrainian Ambassador to France Vadym Omelchenko has said.
“President Macron’s visit to Ukraine is, definitely, planned. We are working on this every day, first of all, on the substantial filling of the agenda of this visit,” Omelchenko said at the online conference titled “Seven years after the Maidan” on Monday. The ambassador believes several major contracts will be signed during the visit of the French President to Ukraine.
“This is, first of all, the major contract with Alstom and the Ukrainian government for the supply of electric locomotives, which also provides for local content in Ukraine. We also hope that we will have time to learn the issue of expanding cooperation with Alstom on the construction of high-speed railway tracks between Kyiv and Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa,” Omelchenko said.
It is also planned to sign contracts for the construction of drinking water stations.
“Such a station has already been constructed in Mariupol, it is tens of millions of euros, and we hope that such construction will also start in Kyiv and Luhansk,” the diplomat said.
Earlier, Head of Ukrzaliznytsia Volodymyr Zhmak said Ukrzaliznytsia has very outdated tracks and needs to be updated strategically. At this stage, according to him, Ukrzaliznytsya is interested in 50 two-system electric locomotives capable of transporting from 5,500 to 6,000 tonnes of cargo.
A delegation led by the naval attaché at the United States Embassy in Ukraine Peter Mallory has arrived in Odesa, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reports.
According to a report on the department’s website, the naval attaché visited the main base of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, where he held a number of bilateral meetings with representatives of the command of the Ukrainian Navy. The parties discussed areas of bilateral military cooperation.
“We have extensive experience of long-term cooperation with our partners, we have cooperation in terms of both training our ship crews, command and control bodies, and manning and enhancing the capabilities of the Navy at sea. Today was dedicated to cooperation in different directions – this is the training of personnel, and the replenishment of the naval personnel,” said commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Navy Oleksiy Neizhpapa after the meeting.
According to him, the issue of security in the Black and Azov Seas was also discussed.
“This cooperation is very useful and necessary for the Ukrainian Navy,” he said.
DELEGATION, NAVAL ATTACHÉ, ODESA, UNITED STATES EMBASSY, VISIT
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced the forthcoming visit of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to Ukraine in 2021, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
According to the minister, the visit of the President of Brazil to Ukraine should serve as an impetus for the development of the Ukrainian and Brazilian partnership. “It should open a new page in bilateral relations,” Kuleba said at the opening ceremony of the first Defense Industry Dialogue between Ukraine and Brazil in Kyiv.
The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that consultations with the Brazilian side had already shown the interest of Brazilian defense industry enterprises in establishing a dialogue with Ukraine. “Brazil conducts such a dialogue only with five countries: Argentina, the United States, Portugal, France and India,” Kuleba said. The minister said the beginning of the defense dialogue is a component of the priority area of the Foreign Ministry to open up new opportunities for Ukrainian companies and industry.
“We are starting the dialogue between associations of industrialists and entrepreneurs of the two countries, between space departments, we are actively preparing the regular meeting of the Ukrainian and Brazilian commission on trade and economic cooperation,” he said.
According to the minister, cooperation between Ukraine and Brazil should not be limited only to bilateral trade, but also provide for ambitious plans for joint entry into the markets of third countries, in particular in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. “This dialogue lays a solid foundation for mutually beneficial long-term cooperation between representatives of defense departments and enterprises of our two countries,” Kuleba said.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, during a meeting with Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, announced that he would visit Ukraine in August 2021, Orthodox Times reports.
According to the online portal, the Patriarch of Constantinople announced that he would pay an official visit to Ukraine on Ukraine’s Independence Day next August, responding to an invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As reported, on October 16, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a working visit to the Republic of Turkey thanked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for supporting the territorial integrity of Ukraine and invited him to visit the country after stabilization of situation with coronavirus disease.
Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva notes that during the visit of Polish President Andrzej Duda to Ukraine on October 12-13, considerable emphasis will be placed on economic cooperation between the two countries, in particular, in the development of infrastructure.
“The President of Poland will visit not only Kyiv, but together with President Zelensky will visit Odesa, where a separate business event will be held, which will be aimed at infrastructure topics. A number of agreements will be signed, in particular, on our maritime infrastructure,” he said in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
Zhovkva pointed out that the topic of Ukrainian-Polish relations is expanding to the sphere of economics. “We are talking not only about politics, about the historical past, which, of course, will be discussed during the visit, but also about our economic relations. After all, Poland is one of our largest partners in Europe in terms of trade,” he said.
The deputy head of the President’s Office recalled that the visit of Polish President Duda to Ukraine was planned in the spring of 2020, and it is very important, because for the first time in the past three years, the President of Poland is visiting Ukraine. In 2017, Duda was in Kharkiv, and he was in Kyiv the last time in 2016.
