On February 7, Andrii Melnyk, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine held video meeting with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Paraguay, Irineo Raúl Silvero Silvagni.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister emphasized an important impetus that was given to bilateral relations by the phone conversation between the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the President of Paraguay Mario Abdo Benítez, held in July 2022.

Having mentioned the clear position of Paraguay concerning the support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Andrii Melnyk expressed gratitude to the Paraguayan colleague for his country’s readiness to keep supporting Ukraine in the U.N. and other international and regional organisations.

Deputy Minister informed his Paraguayan colleague about the struggle of Ukrainian people against the Russian aggression. Andrii Melnyk especially emphasized the key elements of the Peace Formula Plan, initiated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and called on Paraguay to join the implementation of this diplomatic initiative.

On its turn, the Paraguayan Deputy Foreign Minister recalled the experience of Paraguay, which in the 19th century had to defend its independence, and therefore expressed the support of Ukraine’s objective to restore its territorial integrity. He especially noted the negative impact of the Russian intervention against Ukraine on the food security in the region of Latin America.

The sides expressed mutual interest in raising the bilateral trade turnover between Ukraine and Paraguay that was hardly affected by the war of aggression unleashed by Russia, as well as in defining specific promising projects, in particular in agribusiness, energy sector and in the IT sphere.

Counterparts discussed the ways to intensify the political dialogue. In this regard, they agreed to initiate this year the mechanism of regular political consultations at the level of deputy heads of ministries.