The building-up of the cooperation between the cities of Ukraine and Europe stimulates intensification of the international cooperation. Co-Chairperson of the Ukraine-Italy interparliamentary friendship group Serhii Alekseyev said this after the joint visit to Florence together with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
"In the framework of European integration processes one of the important elements is the cooperation and interaction between communities of Ukraine and the EU countries. They significantly enhance the cultural and economic ties and have a positive impact on interstate relations. This mainly concerns Italy where a lot of Ukrainians live. So our joint visit with Vitali Klitschko to Florence allowed to establish such relations between the Italian city and Kyiv," he said.
Serhii Alekseyev said that during the visit they managed to reach agreement on holding a joint business forum next year, and exhibitions of Ukrainian artists (painters and sculptors), and on installing a monument to Taras Shevchenko in Florence. "This is a step in return to the installment of a monument to Dante Alighieri on Saint Volodymyr Hill in Kyiv. Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella said that they will be able to make it already in November this year during the Forum of Mayors of World Cities, to which Vitali Klitschko was also invited," he said.
The MP said that during the visit they raised the question of signing the memorandum of cooperation between Kyiv and Florence, which will give new impetus to the cooperation between the twin cities. They will continue to discuss this issue during the visit of Dario Nardella to Kyiv in September-October this year.
"We have to use every opportunity for establishing ties, since the diplomacy is not only meetings at the level of foreign ministers, prime ministers or presidents. There are situations when "people’s" diplomacy is much more effective. But our interparliamentary friendship group will assist in such cooperation," he said.