Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha held a meeting with leading French defence companies that are members of the GICAT association during his visit to France.

The Minister expressed gratitude to the GICAT leadership, represented by Gérard Lacroix, for the assurance of unwavering support for Ukraine and the readiness to develop cooperation between Ukrainian and French defence industry enterprises.

The Foreign Minister noted the active participation of French arms producers in strengthening Ukraine's defence capabilities, expressed gratitude for their high-quality products that strengthen Ukrainian defenders. He also welcomed the opening of the GICAT office in Ukraine last year, which launched a new stage in long-term and strategic defence cooperation between Ukraine and France.

At the meeting participants discussed projects to meet the urgent needs of the Ukrainian Defence Forces, as well as long-term cooperation, technology development and French investments in Ukrainian weapons production.

“We consider the use of frozen Russian assets to finance weapons purchases for Ukraine to be a promising direction and will welcome a broad participation of French companies in such projects. Allocating additional funds to strengthen our soldiers is an urgent need, and it is fair to use for this purpose Russian assets that have been immobilized because of the full-scale aggression,” the Minister said.

The Foreign Minister also invited French manufacturers to participate in the next defence industry forum to be held in Ukraine this year.

Representatives of Thales, Safran Group, MBDA, Arquus, KNDS took part in the meeting.

For reference: The French land and airland defence and security industry association (GICAT) is a trade association created in 1978 which currently represents more than 380 French private companies in the defence industry.