President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine said on Thursday that Kiev and Washington have a shared view on how to boost defense cooperation between the two nations. His comments came after a bilateral meeting with President Donald J. Trump on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City.
“It’s very important that there is a shared vision on a new level of cooperation in the defense sphere,” Mr. Poroshenko said during a briefing. “We discussed all areas of this cooperation, including cooperation with the defense ministry and other institutions.”
The U.S. and Ukraine are negotiating the possibility of a broader military cooperation. During his visit to Kiev in August, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Washington was “actively reviewing” the idea of supplying Ukraine with defensive lethal weapons.
Mr. Poroshenko also noted in the briefing that Mr. Trump fully supported Kiev’s initiative on deploying U.N. peacekeepers throughout all of eastern Ukraine, presented on Thursday.
“I was extremely impressed by the support of both my speech at the U.N. Security Council and the General Assembly. You see the focus on Ukraine among the world leaders was extremely high,” Mr. Poroshenko said.
Addressing reporters prior to the talks with the Ukrainian president, Mr. Trump said Kiev has made “good progress.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s the easiest place right now to live, but you’re making it better and better on a daily basis. And I do hear very, very good things,” he noted.