On February 12, 2020, Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of Ukraine in the Republic of Finland Illya Kvas had a meeting with the Chairman of the Friendship Group with Ukraine in the Parliament of the Republic of Finland Peter Östman and other members of the group, during which they discussed current issues of the internal situation of Ukraine and ways of intensifying bilateral inter-parliamentary relations.

The interlocutors were informed about the security situation in eastern Ukraine, the key priorities of the government and parliament of Ukraine in the short term. They also discussed current aspects of Ukrainian-Finnish relations, the state of implementation of political and economic reforms in Ukraine, as well as the state of interfaith relations in the context of formation of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In turn, Peter Östman reaffirmed the importance of building inter-parliamentary dialogue between Ukraine and Finland and expressed readiness to organize a visit to Ukraine in 2020 by a group of deputies of Eduskunta (parliament) of Finland in order to establish contacts with members of the deputies’ group of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on inter-parliamentary relations with the Republic of Finland.