Kuleba: Task of Ukraine’s Ambassador to PRC is to prevent ‘Chinese HIMARS’ from coming to Russia

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03.08.2023 16:56

Ukrinform

The task of newly appointed Ambassador of Ukraine to the People's Republic of China Pavlo Riabikin is to build bridges with the Chinese authorities.

"One of the tasks of Pavlo Riabikin is not to bring ‘Chinese HIMARS’ to Ukraine, but to prevent ‘Chinese HIMARS’ from coming to Russia," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba told Ukrinform in a comment.

Kuleba explained that China has its own strategy for relations with Ukraine and sees our country as independent and economically attractive. In the model that Russia sees, there is no independent, economically attractive Ukraine, the minister emphasized.

"We have disagreements in the assessment of certain elements... This is a matter of diplomacy. But we are fundamentally united by a mutual vision of relations and the principle of territorial integrity," he stressed.

In this context, Ukraine’s top diplomat noted that Ambassador Riabikin's task is to "build bridges with the government system" of China.

"Between February 24 of last year and this year, a year of war passed, and our communication with China was maintained on two bridges – communication with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China and communication between the President and leader Xi. Then another bridge appeared: a special envoy arrived. That is, Riabikin's task is to ensure that we have thousands of bridges of communication with China," Kuleba said.

As reported, on April 26, President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed former minister of strategic industries Pavlo Riabikin as the Ambassador of Ukraine to the People's Republic of China.

The appointment took place after a conversation between the leaders of Ukraine and China.

From November 2021 to March 20, 2023, Pavlo Riabikin held the position of Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine. Prior to that, since November 2020, he headed the State Migration Service of Ukraine, previously he was the director general of the Boryspil International Airport, an MP, the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, the deputy minister of transport and communications, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Denmark.