Ukraine has invited Portugal to joint work on the creation of a firefighting aircraft, according to Svyatoslav Tsegolko, press secretary for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
“Ukraine has offered Portugal to develop a firefighting plane on Antonov’s basis,” he wrote on his Twitter page on Monday.
Tsegolko also said that Poroshenko had thanked Portugal for recognizing the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people this year.
He also noted that Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had confirmed that his country “supports Ukraine in NATO and the OSCE.”
Poroshenko is on an official visit to Portugal on December 17-18.
The press service of the Ukrainian president said later on Monday that it is proposed to design and produce firefighting aircraft on the basis of Ukraine’s Antonov State Enterprise.
“We offered to elaborate a joint project of water-bombing aircrafts construction on the basis of Antonov. We are confident that this will increase security in Portugal and will be a very successful and effective project of our cooperation,” the press service said, citing Poroshenko.
According to Petro Poroshenko, bilateral economic projects should play significant importance for the development of cooperation between Portugal and Ukraine. He also said that “we are waiting for Portuguese investors who will seize opportunities for privatization.”
He reminded that Ukraine had helped Portugal during wildfires.
