December 15 was an extremely busy and important day for Ukrainian diplomacy. In Brussels, President Volodymyr Zelensky held a number of important meetings with numerous European leaders, including those of Germany and France.
The president was in the Belgian capital to participate in the 6th Eastern Partnership summit being convened by the EU on Dec. 16.
Among European officials that he met was the president of the European Council, Charles Michel. President Zelensky used the opportunity to reiterate that Ukraine’s strategic goal in relation to the EU is to gain full membership and that he hopes that Brussels will act more expeditiously on his country’s European choice.
President Zelensky participated in a meeting with the leaders of the EU member states with the Associated Trio countries – Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova – at an event initiated by the president of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda.
Together with the Prime Minister of Slovenia Janez Jansa, President Zelensky signed a declaration in support of Ukraine’s European perspective. Slovenia thus joined other EU members in affirming its support for Ukraine attaining membership of the EU.
President Zelensky had brief one on one meetings with France’s leader Emmanuel Macron and the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz. The three then met jointly to discuss resuming the work of the Normandy format and called on Russia to return to the negotiating table.
President Zelensky also met with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev. He thanked him for Baku’s support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and asked about the possibility of Azerbaijan’s involvement in the process of releasing Ukrainian citizens, especially Crimean Tartars who are illegally detained in Russia.
President Zelensky noted that in February 2022 mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations of Ukraine with Azerbaijan and Turkey. In this regard he proposed to hold a summit in Kyiv with the participation of the leaders of the three states.
