KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2020) The sixth Ukraine-EU Association Council is scheduled to convene in Brussels next Tuesday to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine and economic cooperation, according to the Ukrainian government's press office.
"The agenda encapsulates a discussion of the security situation in eastern Ukraine in the context of counteracting Russian aggression and implementation of the Minsk Agreements, as well as the current situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea," the statement published on the Ukrainian government portal read.
The statement also announced that the meeting will be chaired by Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and will feature Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vadym Prystaiko among other high-ranking officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government.
The European side will be led by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel and Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi will also take part.
This will be the first such meeting with the new compositions of both the Ukrainian government and the EU leadership, having all assumed their offices over the course of last year.
The European Council corroborated the upcoming meeting and added that the two sides will review the implementation of the Association Agreement with a focus of the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DFTCA).
The DFTCA and Association Agreement were at the center of the 2014 Euromaidan, after then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich postponed inking the agreements which drew the ire of Europe-leaning Ukrainians. Subsequent nationwide unrest saw Yanukovich toppled and Ukraine take a decidedly European turn.
