Friends!

The last two days I spent at various official events together with the delegation of Israel. These days Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein came to Kyiv. This is the first visit of the Speaker of the Israeli parliament to Ukraine in the past 23 years! Therefore, an action plan was quite intense.

The first day we spent at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Yuli Edelstein and Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Andrew Paruby signed a memorandum on cooperation. Besides, we all talked a lot about the prospects of Israeli-Ukrainian relations. Also, during various meetings with Ukrainian parliamentarians we discussed cooperation in the fields of medicine, new technologies. Yuli Edelstein also expressed hope that the agreement on free trade zone between Ukraine and Israel will start its work in 2017.

Today there was another interesting event - Forum "Ukraine - Israel 2016". There we also lifted all the themes I mentioned, and even discussed the deepening of cultural knowledge. Ukrainians and Jews know each other more outdated by the canons of both nations, our goal with you now -sis to modernize these ideas. Of course, it is extremely important to know and remember the story in which we have much in common, but it is equally important to understand people, who are living on Ukrainian and Israeli lands now. Then we can go forward with high helded head.

Of course, the Israeli delegation visited the Memorial of the victims of the Holodomor. There, representatives of both countries lighted candle in their memory and laid flowers at the eternal sign of respect. I think the recognition of this tragedy is clear and will soon be embodied in reality by the Israeli Knesset.

After the Revolution of Dignity the friendship and cooperation between Ukraine and Israel is growing by leaps and bounds. I am pleased with it and I am confident that in the further we expect a lot of interesting initiatives, that will be implemented in practice. I put much effort to it and continue to help it because we have a lot to learn from each other.