Defense Ministers of Ukraine Rustem Umerov and France’s Sébastien Lecorne discussed the supply of weapons and military equipment, bilateral projects on military-technical cooperation, training of Ukrainian servicemen and the implementation of Euro-Atlantic standards, the press service of the Defense Ministry reports.
“I would like to thank Mr. Minister, the President, the government and the people of the French Republic for their unwavering support for Ukraine in providing a powerful package of military and humanitarian aid, as well as protecting Ukrainians who were forced to flee Ukraine to escape Russian bombing,” the press service quoted Umerov as saying.
It is reported that France has already provided Ukraine with modern SAMP/T and Crotale air defense systems, CAESAR artillery systems, Milan anti-tank weapons, AMX tanks, VAB armored personnel carriers, etc. According to Umerov, “this assistance certainly brings our victory closer.”
Lecorneu, for his part, emphasized the importance of continuing assistance to Ukraine by partner countries in the long term, focusing on the transfer of weapons and military equipment, training of Ukrainian military personnel and joint defense production.
“The first is the transfer of weapons. We will continue to transfer weapons to Ukraine. The second part of our support is training of soldiers. We have fulfilled our goals by the end of the year. More than seven thousand Ukrainian soldiers were trained in France (on French territory or in Poland). It was either some general training or specialized training. I would like to inform you that the training will continue at the same level. The third issue is more strategic and concerns our ability to jointly produce something for the needs of Ukraine,” the French Defense Minister said.
In addition, during the visit of the Minister of the French Armed Forces to Ukraine, a memorandum of intent on cooperation was signed between the state-owned enterprise of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine “Defense Procurement Agency” and the Directorate General for Armaments (DGA) (France). The document envisages indefinite cooperation and creates a legal framework for concluding contracts. It will also contribute to deepening military-technical cooperation, in particular in the development of joint high-tech projects for the defense of both countries.
Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are preparing for boosting defense cooperation in the sphere of joint production of new samples of weapons and equipment, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) based on developments of Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv).
The press service of the Ukroboronprom state concern reported that the potential of the bilateral military and technical cooperation between Kyiv and Abu Dhabi was the subject of negotiations held during Le Bourget 2019 International Paris Air Show by Head of the state concern Pavlo Bukin and UAE Assistant Undersecretary for Support Services Abdulla Al Hashmi.
Bukin said that among the promising defense cooperation projects considered by the parties are the establishment of joint production of UAVs based on the developments of the Antonov State Enterprise.
As the head of Ukroboronprom said, the reliable Antonov aircraft, capable of working in extreme climatic conditions, fully meets the needs of the military and rescuers, and it is in steady demand in the market, which was confirmed during the negotiations held during Le Bourget 2019.
“Today, the most promising market for us is the countries of the Middle East and Southeast Asia,” he said, adding: “We expect that in the near future Antonov’s products will occupy a significant part of the market in these regions.”
According to the report, during the talks, the parties discussed a wide range of cooperation, including logistics support for the needs of the UAE Ground Forces.
