On December, 16 the New Europe Center and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine held the strategic discussion “Diplomacy 2021: Government’s priorities, expectations of society” with the participation of Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Media-partner of the event – European Pravda.

Speakers of the event:

• Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine;
• Anka Feldhusen, Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine;
• Oleksandr Sushko, Executive director of the International Renaissance Foundation;
• Yevhen Hlibovytsky, Founder of the pro.mova think tank, member of Nestor Group;
• Olexiy Haran, Head of Research of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation

Moderator:

• Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the New Europe Center

Presentation of the opinion poll:

• Sergiy Solodkyy, First Deputy Director of the New Europe Center

During the event dedicated to foreign policy priorities of Ukraine for 2021 the New Europe Center researchers presented the results of a nationwide opinion poll on the expectations of Ukrainian society, commissioned by our center and carried out by Info Sapiens.

Some of the key findings include:

• 67% of Ukrainians are adherents of EU membership, the percentage of NATO membership advocates stands at 48% of Ukrainians.
• Almost 70% of respondents pointed to the importance of pro-European reforms, even if the EU does not give the country the prospect of membership.
• The most trusted foreign politician is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the least trusted one – Vladimir Putin.
• The majority of Ukrainians (58%) do not believe that Russia will cease its aggressive policy towards Ukraine if the latter abandons its willingness to join the EU and NATO.
• Of Ukrainians polled, 367% believe that Ukraine should resume vigorously promoting the idea of deploying a UN peacekeeping mission in the entire territory of Donbas.
• 45% percent of respondents believe that Ukraine’s diplomacy should prioritize the issue of winning markets for Ukrainian producers.

The representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine, foreign diplomatic missions, as well as Ukrainian experts took part in the event.

Watch the recording of the event in Ukrainian here.

Watch in English here.

Photos from the event will be available soon.

The event was organized within the Think Tanks Development Initiative for Ukraine, implemented by the International Renaissance Foundation in partnership with the Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE) and with financial support from the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine.