On Saturday, October 19, 2024 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha welcomed to Kyiv Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noël Barrot, who paid a visit to our country.
The diplomats discussed the allies' support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Victory Plan and the Peace Formula, as well as countering Russia's attempts to scale up the war by enlisting the support of the DPRK. The Ministers addressed issues related to intensifying Ukrainian-French defense cooperation and the ways to support Ukraine's energy resilience ahead of winter.
Andrii Sybiha expressed gratitude to France for its comprehensive support since the beginning of the Russian full-scale aggression and noted that thanks to the dialogue between the leaders Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron our countries managed to build special partnership relations.
The Minister emphasized that Ukraine highly values France's support on its path to the EU and NATO.
The Head of the Foreign Ministry underlined the need for further strengthening Ukrainian-French defense cooperation and implementation of joint defense projects.
“The basis for extensive cooperation with France in the defense industry has already been laid. This applies to the localization and joint production of the most necessary weapons in Ukraine, as well as the transfer of a number of French innovative technologies,” the Minister said.
In this context, Andrii Sybiha thanked the French side for implementing the decision to form a Ukrainian brigade in France and expressed hope that this initiative would serve as an example to other Ukraine’s partners.
The Minister has noted that Ukraine counts on France's support for the Victory Plan and emphasized that the implementation of the initiative will be the best Allied response to Russia's escalation of the war, including plans to involve North Korean troops.
The Head of the Foreign Ministry highlighted France's leading role in implementing the Peace Formula and thanked for the successful organization of a thematic conference on the point “Nuclear Safety” in Paris this week. He has added that Ukraine and France are working productively to prepare the second Global Peace Summit.
Andrii Sybiha also noted the active work of France and Minister Barrot personally on the return of Ukrainian children and welcomed the recent French-Canadian statement. According to him, the parties discussed in detail the implementation of the relevant paragraph of the Peace Formula and the involvement of as many participants as possible in the ministerial conference in Canada on October 30-31.
The Foreign Minister also thanked his colleague for France's support for the EU's decision to provide Ukraine with macro-financial assistance in the amount of €35 billion as part of the G7 leaders' agreements in June and expressed hope for its speedy implementation.
Another important area of work is deepening interregional cooperation. Andrii Sybiha has pointed out several successful examples of such cooperation that Ukraine already has and referred to plans to further exploit the potential in this area. He has added that Ukrainians highly value France's patronage over the reconstruction of Chernihiv region.
The presentation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine of specially selected archival diplomatic documents from the times of the Ukrainian People's Republic was a special element of the visit. The presented historical documents reflect the friendly nature of Ukrainian-French relations of that period, including active bilateral diplomatic contacts and joint projects of cultural diplomacy.
Presenting the exhibition to his French colleague, Andrii Sybiha emphasized that friendly relations between Ukraine and France had deep historical roots.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is grateful to Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine Anatolii Khromov and Director of the Central State Archive of Higher Authorities and Administration of Ukraine Larysa Levchenko for the search and preparation of the presentation materials.