In the framework of his official visit to Canada, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Rybak on Monday met with the leader of Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada, and the New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair
26 November 2013, 00:30
In the framework of his official visit to Canada, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Rybak on Monday met with the leader of Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada, and the New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair.
Having noted that this is the first official visit of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to Canada, Volodymyr Rybak considers it ‘a logical continuation of the first in the history visit of the House of Commons Speaker to Ukraine in autumn, 2009.’
He expressed his hope that positive dynamics of developing inter-parliamentary dialogue will remain.
On behalf of Ukrainian parliamentarians Volodymyr Rybak thanked Canada for stable support of formation and development of our statehood, and for being the first country in the Western Hemisphere to recognize Ukraine’s independence.
‘These are exactly how relations of Special partnership should be,’ said Volodymyr Rybak.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada stressed readiness to gradually support Ukrainian-Canadian inter-parliamentary contacts, particularly at the level of bilateral friendship groups.
The Parties unanimously claim that Ukraine and Canada are connected not only by active political relations and economic interests but also by inter-personal contacts and cultural ties of Ukraine with over a million Ukrainian people in Canada. ‘Ukrainian immigrants have been contributing to strengthening and development of Canada for over one hundred years, they take active part in the country’s life – political as well,’ said Volodymyr Rybak reminding of the name of Senator Yuzyk who is thought to be ‘the father’ of Canadian policy of multiculturalism.
In his turn, Thomas Mulcair highly appreciated contribution of Ukrainian community into development of Canada and policy of multiculturalism. According to him, Ukraine embodies the image of a country that achieved a lot in development of its statehood for a short period of time. ‘I think that Ukraine still has an intention to sign the EU Association Agreement,’ he said.