2021-01-21T18:56:00+02:00 Politics 2024-09-15T09:07:25+03:00

Ukrainian news

Kuleba, Chinese Foreign Minister Discuss Export Of Coronavirus Vaccines To Ukraine, Plans For Contacts Between

Kuleba, Chinese Foreign Minister Discuss Export Of Coronavirus Vaccines To Ukraine, Plans For Contacts Between Ukrainian And Chinese Leaders

Foreign Affairs Ministers Dmytro Kuleba and China's Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi have discussed export of a vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus and plans for contacts between the leaders of the two countries.

This was announced in a statement on the website of the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Dmytro Kuleba has held a telephone conversation with… Foreign Affairs Minister of the People's Republic of China Wang Yi. Dmytro Kuleba expressed gratitude for the assistance that the government of the PRC provided to the government of Ukraine in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic during the past year and asked his Chinese counterpart to facilitate the granting of permission to export the Chinese vaccine against coronavirus to Ukraine as soon as possible," the statement said.

Wang assured Kuleba of the Chinese government’s readiness to continue supporting Ukraine in the fight against the pandemic until it is completely overcome.

"Dmytro Kuleba and Wang Yi discussed plans for Ukrainian-Chinese contacts at all levels, including the highest level, in 2021. In this context, the Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs informed his Chinese counterpart about measures to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence," the statement said.

The ministers confirmed their mutual invitations to pay working visits to each other’s countries when quarantine restrictions allow.

"Ukraine and China celebrate 10 years since the declaration of their strategic partnership and Ukraine celebrates 30 years of independence this year. Against this backdrop, I sincerely hope that Ukraine and China will be able to show great positive results in their bilateral relations," Kuleba said.

The foreign ministers also welcomed the increase of bilateral trade by 20% to a record USD 15 billion last year despite the coronavirus pandemic.

China was Ukraine’s largest trading partner in 2019-2020, with exports of Ukrainian goods increasing by 92% and imports of Chinese goods decreasing by 12% in 2020.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said that he would be glad to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to Ukraine and that he believed that Ukraine would leave the category of supplier of “exclusively raw materials” to China.

Former Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei expressed confidence that Zelenskyy would pay an official visit to Beijing to meet with Xi during the Ukrainian leader’s presidency (until 2024, inclusive).