Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha and the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Tom Berend Willem Berendsen discussed further energy, defense and diplomatic support for Ukraine during a meeting in Kyiv.
It was reported by the official portal of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
Sybiha also reported on the visit of the new Dutch Minister of Defense Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius to Kyiv.
"I am pleased to welcome the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Tom Berendsen, to Kyiv. This is his first foreign visit to Ukraine together with the new Minister of Defense. This is the first international visit of two ministers of the new Dutch government. For us, this is a sign of special respect and we appreciate it very much... I am grateful to the Netherlands for these important political signals. The new Dutch government has identified international security and the development of partnership with Ukraine as its priorities," Sybiha said at a joint press conference with his Dutch counterpart.
According to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, the parties discussed the energy sector of cooperation in detail.
"In recent months alone, the Netherlands has provided EUR 23 million for energy needs. In particular, 4 large and 19 small transformers, 35 million euros mainly for solar energy systems. Today is the last day of winter and this is good news. And tomorrow, the calendar spring begins. This means that the Russian winter terror has been defeated... And we are grateful to all our partners for this," Sybiha said.
He noted that the volume of defense support from the Netherlands amounted to more than EUR 14 billion, of which almost EUR 10 billion was provided directly for weapons.
"Thank you for the prompt transfer of ammunition for our air defense. The Netherlands is one of the leaders of the PURL, with a contribution of EUR 750 million. We agreed to continue our successful cooperation in the field of drones. We are talking about contracts for 600,000 drones with a total value of EUR 510 million, as well as additional 350,000 FPV drones worth another EUR 300 million. We are looking forward to scaling up joint production, in particular within the framework of the "Building with Ukraine" initiative," the head of Ukrainian diplomacy added.
The parties discussed the diplomatic track and the trilateral negotiation process. They also discussed the imposition of sanctions primarily against russia's shadow fleet and energy sector. Particular attention was paid to the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression in The Hague, and the ratification of the convention on the establishment of an international compensation commission was also discussed today.
In turn, Berendsen said he was impressed by the resilience of the Ukrainian people and assured that Ukraine could continue to count on the support of the Netherlands.
"We continue to help you militarily, financially and through humanitarian aid and reconstruction, including support through the private sector... This year President Zelenskyy said that the war may be at the beginning of the end, and I honestly hope that is the case... I want to assure you that our support will not end at the end of the war and will continue on... We continue to advocate for the use of frozen sovereign Russian assets to... support Ukraine. In particular, we are working to secure the EUR 90 billion loan agreed by the EU in December. We will support the swift adoption of the 20th sanctions package against Russia. We must include its military-industrial complex, including its shadow navy. And we will maintain cooperation with the Ukrainian military industry. During our meeting today, we discussed these issues," Berendsen said.
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