On May 16, Special Representative of Ukraine for the Middle East and Africa Maksym Subkh delivered a video address to the participants of the 9th investment and trade forum "Africa’s Gateway to Industry, Agriculture and Trade", which is taking place on May 16-17 in Algiers and is hosted by the Arab-African Centre for Investment and Development (CAAID).

The Ukrainian diplomat noted that Ukraine has recently significantly intensified the high-level political dialogue with the countries of the African continent. In particular, he mentioned the telephone conversations held by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy with his Arab and African colleagues, the President’s speech at the meeting of the Bureau of the Assembly of the African Union, the historic visit of the President of Guinea-Bissau, Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to Ukraine, as well as the first tour of Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba to the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Special Representative of Ukraine also informed the audience about the ambitious humanitarian program and charity initiative of the President of Ukraine "Grain from Ukraine". Within its framework, Ukraine is working on the delivery of significant volumes of Ukrainian grains to African countries that need it the most and suffer from food shortages. In line with this grain initiative, Ukraine sent six ships to Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Yemen from December 2022 to March 2023.

Maksym Subkh emphasized that Ukraine is and will remain a reliable guarantor of food security for the African continent. Despite the ongoing Russian armed aggression, our state is determined to continue meaningful cooperation and build mutually beneficial relations with the countries and peoples of Africa by strengthening our diplomatic, political, economic, and investment presence in such areas as agriculture, industry, information technologies, etc.

About 600 participants from over 35 countries from Africa and the Arab world are taking part in the event.