Ukraine, Syria restore diplomatic ties after breakdown during Assad regime

Following his meeting with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that their leaders had formally resumed diplomatic relations with Syria as they convened on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

According to a brief statement from the Syrian Foreign Ministry, Asaad al-Shaibani and an accompanying delegation also attended the meeting on Wednesday in New York.

After Bashar al-Assad’s government moved to declare the “independence” of the Russian-backed breakaway republics Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine severed diplomatic ties with Syria in 2022. Syria made a statement shortly after that it would renounce its relationship with Kyiv.

According to Zelenskyy, Syria and Ukraine both signed a letter requesting the restoration of diplomatic ties.

The Ukrainian leader wrote on X that “we welcome this significant step and are ready to support the Syrian people on their way to stability.”

Zelenskyy said, “We also discussed in detail promising areas for developing cooperation, security threats faced by both countries, and the importance of countering them,” during our discussions with the president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Ukraine and Syria signed a Joint Communiqué today to resume diplomatic relations. We applaud this significant step and are prepared to support the Syrian people’s stabilization efforts.

We also discussed… pic during our discussions with Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa. twitter.com/HBXsoaRob8

The Ukrainian leader claimed that the two countries had agreed to “build our relations on the basis of mutual respect and trust.”

Al-Sharaa arrived in New York on Sunday with a delegation of ministers to attend the UN General Assembly, marking Syria’s first presidential participation in the annual gathering in nearly 60 years.

Following the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1967, when Israel occupied the Golan Heights in southwest Syria, Damascus had canceled the gathering.

The last head of state from 1966 to 1970 to represent Syria at the UN summit was President Nureddin al-Atassi.

After the opposition forces overthrew President al-Assad’s regime, al-Sharaa took control of Damascus in January, putting an end to the Assad family’s five-decade rule over Syria.

Al-Sharaa demanded that the UNGA’s inaugural speech on Wednesday, which was his first one.