Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has met with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, who made his first visit to Ukraine as head of the foreign ministry of the country that took over EU presidency from January 1, 2015, the presidential press service has reported.
“The president expressed hope for the successful holding of the Eastern Partnership summit, which is scheduled for May 2015 in Riga,” the report says.
Poroshenko said that Ukraine was successfully implementing the second phase of the action plan on visa liberalization, in particular, introducing biometric passports.
“Ukrainians have high hopes for the introduction of the visa-free regime of travel to the EU as the practical result of the Riga summit. It will be very symbolic,” he said.
In addition, he noted that “the only way to de-escalate the situation in Donbas is the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.”
“Unfortunately, this does not happen, because the Ukrainian-Russian border remains open for the supply of military equipment, and the ceasefire is being constantly violated by militants,” Poroshenko said.
Rinkevics, in turn, said that his country had always “adopted and will adopt a very strong position on the inviolability of borders and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as on the non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea.”
