Luxembourg's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, was in Kiev on a working visit on Thursday and Friday, at the invitation of the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin.
Minister Asselborn met the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, his counterpart Pavlo Klimkin, the Deputy Finance Minister Olena Makeieva, and the Vice President of the Parliament of Ukraine, Oksana Syroid. In addition, Minister Asselborn used his visit to Kiev to meet with the Head of Delegation of the European Union in Ukraine, Jan Tombinski, and the head of the EU advisory mission on the reform of the sector civil security in Ukraine (Ukraine EUAM), Kálmán Mizsei.
The talks between Minister Asselborn and the Ukrainian authorities first addressed bilateral relations between the Grand Duchy and Ukraine, before focusing on the key points of the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU Council and the relations of Ukraine with the EU, while dealing with political developments in the country and the situation in the East and Crimea.
"Due to the incoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union, I wanted to go to Kiev. For the EU, improving the situation in Ukraine is a priority," said Minister Asselborn, deploring the dramatic condition in which the country finds itself, "the illegal annexation of the Crimea and the worrying developments to the east - I think we can speak of war - give us great concern. "
While reiterating the full support of Luxembourg for the efforts of France and Germany in the Normandy format, and the work of the Trilateral Contact Group, Minister Asselborn regretted that the Special Monitoring Mission of OSCE continues to be hampered in the performance of its duties, particularly due to increasingly reduced access on the ground. "The EU is not asking anything unreasonable from Russia, if only to stop the flow of arms across its border with Ukraine," said Minister Asselborn, stressing the fact that "despite all difficulties, Minsk II agreements remain essential. Our common goal is to end the conflict."
Recalling the European Union's efforts to try to help Ukraine politically, financially and on the humanitarian front, the Minister welcomed the forthcoming entry into force of the DCFTA on 1 January 2016. He further insisted that the crisis should not prevent Ukraine to continue on the path of reform and modernisation "Conflict paralyses - reform gives hope." The minister said he was confident in the ability of Ukraine to meet deadlines for visa liberalisation. He stressed the need for intelligent implementation of the concept of decentralisation as well as the urgency of the reform of the judiciary that goes along with the fight against corruption.
On the sidelines of his visit, Minister Asselborn presented an honorary award to the Honorary Consul of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Ukraine, Nikolay Novikov.
Photo by MAEE (L-R): Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine; Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
