Syria’s new administration wants to build “strategic partnerships” with Kyiv, the interim government’s new Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani told his Ukrainian counterpart during a Monday meeting between the two.
Syrian rebels ousted the Moscow-backed Assad regime on Dec. 8. The Ukrainian delegation, headed by Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, arrived in Syria on Monday to discuss potential cooperation between Kyiv and the new administration under the rebels.
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Shibani told Sybiha at the meeting that the new administration wishes to build “strategic partnerships” and noted “the same suffering” between the two, hinting at the Assad regime’s violent crackdowns with Moscow’s backing and the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“There will be strategic partnerships between us and Ukraine on the political, economic and social levels and scientific partnerships,” Shibani told Sybiha, according to Reuters.
“Certainly the Syrian people and the Ukrainian people have the same experience and the same suffering that we endured over 14 years,” Shibani added.
Following the meeting, Sybiha said Ukraine is ready to “open a new page” in bilateral relations with Syria.
“In Damascus, I met with my Syrian counterpart Asaad Hassan al-Shaybani. We are ready to open a new page in our bilateral relations, restore diplomatic ties based on mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, and develop cooperation in international organizations,” Sybiha said in a social media post on Monday afternoon.
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Sybiha said Ukraine would send more food and aid to Syria following his earlier meeting with the country’s new de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine sent 500 tons of flour to Syria by sea.
Ukraine remains one of the world’s largest wheat exporters despite the ongoing war.
The parties at the meeting made no public statements about the future of Russian bases in Syria, where Moscow has maintained full jurisdiction over the Khmeimim Air Base in Lakatia and the Tartus Naval Base in Syria since 2017 under agreements with the ousted Assad regime.
However, Sharaa hinted in an earlier interview with the Al-Arabiya TV channel that the new administration will likely maintain some contact with Moscow due to the “deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria.”
“All Syria’s arms are of Russian origin, and many power plants are managed by Russian experts ... We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish,” Sharaa said.
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