On December 26-27, 2011 Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryshchenko paid an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

During the visit Minister Gryshchenko held a series of meetings with senior officials of the Kingdom, including Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, Minister of Defense Prince Salman Al-Saud, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohamad Al-Jafar.

Foreign Ministers of Ukraine and Saudi Arabia spoke about a new level of political dialogue between the two countries. Special attention was paid to further intensification of Ukrainian-Saudi political contacts at the highest and high official levels, and the need to expand the legal base of bilateral relations. The officials also discussed global and regional international issues.

During the meeting with Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Salman Al-Saud the parties agreed to further develop military-technical cooperation between two states, as well as shared views on current state of international and regional security.

The issues of interparliamentary dialogue between Ukraine and Saudi Arabia were discussed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohamad Al-Jafar. Both sides welcomed the recent visit to Ukraine paid by Chairman of the Advisory Council of Saudi Arabia Abdullah Al-Sheikh. Muhammad Al-Jafar, on behalf of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, invited the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to visit Saudi Arabia, as well as suggested exchanging visits between both states’ parliamentary friendship groups.