Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze, the Chairperson of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU, Oleksandr Merezhko, the Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation, and Inna Sovsun, the MP, met with journalists from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and India. During the meeting with the parliamentarians, the journalists had the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze thanked UCMC for organising an important trip to Ukraine for media representatives from the Asian region.
“It is extremely valuable for us to reach the audience of this region, with which we do not work much for objective and subjective reasons and do not have stable ties,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze.
According to her, the Asian media were interested in the situation in Ukraine, the mood of Ukrainian society, and why we believe that this war is important for their region as well.
For his part, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation, Oleksandr Merezhko, stressed that “it is important to convey our position to the countries of the Global South. This is an important part of the information war, in which truth is our weapon.”
They also talked about the drop in attention to Ukraine in many Asian media outlets following the escalation of the war in the Middle East. The parliamentarians explained to the journalists that Ukraine is a multicultural, multinational and tolerant country. This distinguishes it from the russian federation, where Muslims and representatives of other religions are persecuted.
At the end of the conversation, the Ukrainian MPs and Asian journalists noted that the meeting was a thorough, in-depth conversation that gives hope for continuation.
“We look forward to continuing this dialogue with them in the future and amplifying Ukraine's voice in different regions. This work is critically important. And it is especially important to have such communication from the lips of parliamentarians who represent people, their citizens,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze.
For reference: Representatives of Asian media are on a press trip to Ukraine as part of the project "Unfold Ukraine to Global South", implemented by Ukraine Crisis Media Center in cooperation and coordination with the Open Society Foundation and funded by the International Renaissance Foundation.
The project aims to change the focus of coverage of the events of the russian-Ukrainian war in the countries of the notional Global South and provide them with information for an objective and holistic understanding of the context and peculiarities of russian-Ukrainian relations.