Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Senyk and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney inaugurated the premises of the Irish Embassy in Ukraine on August 23, the press service of the Foreign Ministry said on Aug. 25.
“The opening of the Irish Embassy in Kyiv creates additional opportunities for the development of trade cooperation between our countries and, undoubtedly, will contribute to the intensification of bilateral cooperation in many sectors, in particular the IT sector, in the field of investment and education,” said Senyk.
He also drew attention to the successful activities of the Irish companies CRH and Ryanair in Ukraine and expressed hope for further expansion of cooperation between businesses of the two countries.
Coveney, in turn, noted that the opening of the embassy in Kyiv is an important milestone in the development of bilateral cooperation and is part of Global Ireland’s strategy to expand Ireland’s presence in the world.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Ireland were established on April 1, 1992, and the Ukrainian Embassy in Ireland was opened in August 2003.
On August 19, 2021, Irish Ambassador to Ukraine, with her residence in Kyiv, Teresa Gili, presented her credentials to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky (until that time, the Irish Ambassador to the Czech Republic was accredited in Ukraine concurrently). The official opening of the Irish Embassy in Kyiv took place on 23 August 2021 during Coveney’s visit to Ukraine to participate in the inaugural summit of the Crimean Platform.
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the volume of trade in goods and services between Ukraine and Ireland in 2020 amounted to $677 million (0.8% of the total volume of trade in goods and services of Ukraine with the EU member states), and in the first quarter of 2021 decreased by 15.8% compared to the first quarter of 2020 and amounted to $176.5 million.
