Foreign Affairs Minister Poroshenko visits UAE

On Sunday, December 20, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Petro Poroshenko, began a two-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates.

Strengthening cooperation between the legislatures of Ukraine and the UAE are important for relations between the two countries to develop, Minister Poroshenko remarked in Dubai, where he spoke with the Speaker of the UAE legislature, the Federal National Council (FNC), Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ghurair.

Mr. Poroshenko noted that Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada considered the advancement and coordination of interparliamentary dialog between the countries very important. This goal is partly to serve the parliamentary committee for Ukraine-Emirates friendship in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which was set up in 2007. The head of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry proposed setting up a counterpart committee within the FNC and increasing exchange visits of parliamentary delegations.

The Speaker of the Federal National Council praised Ukraine’s high international profile, as well as its political and economic clout among Eastern European countries. He also noted that the UAE was interested not only in evolving interlegislative relations with Ukraine, but in strengthening the political, trade and cultural components of bilateral relations.

During his two-day visit, Minister Poroshenko plans to meet with his Emirates counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Emirates business leaders. In the course of the visit, plans are to review the state and prospects of bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and the UAE. A number of joint documents are also ready for signing.

Tags: diplomatic relations, UAE