On February 16, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba had the first telephone conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Canada Marc Garneau, during which Minister Kuleba congratulated his counterpart on his appointment.

The ministers discussed the intensification of cooperation between Ukraine and Canada in the political, security, defenсe, trade, investment and migration spheres. 

Dmytro Kuleba expressed gratitude for the work of the Canadian UNIFIER training mission in Ukraine: “Canada is helping to strengthen Ukraine's security and defenсe sector, not in words, but in reality. Canadian UNIFIER instructors share important experiences and practices for transforming our armed forces to NATO standards. This is an example of cooperation of close partners."

Ministers welcomed the launch of the Ukrainian-Canadian Mobility Working Group to strengthen people-to-people ties. The Foreign Minister of Ukraine proposed to hold its first meeting next month and confirmed the interest of the Ukrainian side in concluding a bilateral agreement on youth exchanges.

Dmytro Kuleba informed his counterpart about the priorities of the Crimean Platform as a platform for consolidating international efforts to de-occupy Crimea and invited the Canadian side to take part in its inaugural summit this year. 

Marc Garneau assured that Canada continues to unwaveringly support Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

The sides agreed to start negotiations in the near future to extend the provisions of the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and Canada to the sphere of services and investments. 

Ministers paid special attention to combating the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccinating the population. 

Dmytro Kuleba and Marc Garneau underlined the importance of coordinating further actions and forming common positions in preparation for the next stage of talks with Iran in order to bring to justice those responsible for the downing of PS752 and achieve justice for the victims of the tragedy and their relatives.

Finally, the counterparts confirmed the mutual invitation to pay working visits after the stabilizing of the epidemic situation.