Zelensky will arrive in Portugal in the afternoon

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Portugal on Tuesday afternoon, where he will be received by the head of state and prime minister and sign a ten-year agreement on bilateral cooperation.

According to a note issued on Monday by the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic and the Prime Minister’s Office, this is a “working visit” with the aim of “deepening the excellent relations between the two states, with a particular focus on strengthening cooperation in the field of security and defense.”

Vladimir Zelensky, who will arrive in Portugal after a visit to Spain and Belgium, will first hold a meeting at the official residence of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, where a bilateral agreement will be signed, and then will be received by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at the Belem Palace.

According to the same note published by the Palace of Belem and São Bento, Zelensky’s visit “will also be an opportunity to reaffirm Portugal’s commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as to maintaining political and military support, financial and humanitarian to Kyiv.”

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, the Foreign Minister said that the bilateral agreement, which will be signed during Zelensky’s visit, covers all areas of cooperation between the two countries over the past two years: “humanitarian, financial, military and political assistance.”

“It brings together all the aspects we have worked on, but systematically and with a ten-year perspective,” added Paulo Rangel.

This bilateral agreement began to be planned after the last North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit last July in Vilnius (Lithuania), under the previous government, and consolidates all Portuguese interventions with the Ukrainian authorities since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.

On May 14, Minister of National Defense Nuno Melo confirmed that a visit of the President of Ukraine to Portugal is being prepared, without specifying when and with what program.

“The visit is being prepared with the reserve that it should have, and we will see in a very short time how everything will happen,” Nuno Melo told reporters on the sidelines of the visit to the party headquarters. Association of Disabled Armed Forces in Lisbon.

Later that day, the Efe news agency reported, citing the Spanish Royal House, that Vladimir Zelensky had canceled a trip to Spain planned for May 17, which would also include Portugal.

Last August, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made a two-day visit to Ukraine at the invitation of President Vladimir Zelensky on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of that country’s independence.

During this visit, the Portuguese head of state visited Kyiv, Buca, Moshchun, Irpin and Gorenka as a sign of support for the Ukrainians in the war to defend against the invasion of the Russian Federation, which began in February 2022.