The meeting was held while the Heads of State participated in the annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The President of Latvia noted that Latvia maintained its request to Russia to fulfil its obligations under the Minsk agreement. “A stable security situation is a necessary prerequisite to reach a political agreement,” told Raimonds Vējonis.
He said that Latvia continued to support closer integration of Ukraine into the European Union and welcomed positive discussions in the European Parliament earlier this month on visa liberalization with Ukraine. “Latvia and Europe are interested in democratically and economically strong Ukraine,” emphasized the President of Latvia in the conversation with Petro Poroshenko.
The Presidents agreed on the need to promote cooperation among the law enforcement authorities of Latvia and Ukraine, while addressing the issue of 50 million euros transferred to the state budget of Latvia, which were recognized as illegal proceeds originating from Ukraine. Petro Poroshenko admitted that the Ukrainian side had not provided all the sufficient information yet that Latvia required for the investigation purposes.
Raimonds Vējonis welcomed the commitment of the Ukrainian government to reform public administration and national economy, reduce corruption while being aware that the reforms would take place under difficult economic and security conditions. At the same time, the President of Latvia called on Ukraine to reduce obstacles for investments of Latvian businesses in Ukraine.
During the meeting, the President of Latvia also invited President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to visit Riga in 2017 in order to intensify the cooperation between the two countries even more.