Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington
on Tuesday for talks on security, political and economic issues,
Poroshenko's
office said.
"It is
very important that my meeting, as the Ukrainian president, in the White House
will be earlier than (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's meeting," it
quoted Poroshenko, who is already in the United States, as saying.
It will be
their first meeting since Trump took office on Jan. 20.
Poroshenko
said that he also would meet top officials from the State Department,
ministries of defence, trade and energy.
"There
never was such a powerful visit. And precisely in order to have the opportunity
to talk about our cooperation in the security, political and economic
spheres", he added.
Poroshenko
praised the U.S. Senate for the decision to introduce new sanctions against
Russia, saying that sanctions were a civilized mechanism "to force the
aggressor to get away from Ukraine", withdraw troops and equipment.
Last week,
the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly for new sanctions punishing Russia for
meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and to force Trump to get Congress' approval
before easing any existing sanctions.
The move was
intended to punish Russia over issues including alleged meddling in the
election, which Moscow denies, annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and
support for the government of Syria in that country's six-year-long civil war.
The Minsk
peace agreement, brokered by France and Germany and signed by Russia and
Ukraine in February 2015, calls for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy
weapons from the front line and constitutional reform to give eastern Ukraine
more autonomy.
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