Syria and Ukraine restored diplomatic relations Wednesday, as Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa held talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly session in New York.
The meeting was attended by Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani along with an accompanying delegation, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine and Syria signed a communique on the restoration of diplomatic relations. “We welcome this important step and are ready to support the Syrian people on their path to stability,” he wrote on US social media company X.
“During our negotiations with President of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa, we also discussed in detail promising sectors for developing cooperation, security threats faced by both countries, and the importance of countering them.”
We agreed to build our relations on the basis of mutual respect and trust, he added.
Ukraine severed relations with Syria after the latter recognized the Russian breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine in 2022.
The Syrian president arrived in New York on Sunday with several ministers to take part in the annual UN meetings, ending nearly six decades of Syrian absence from the world body’s top forum.
Syria boycotted the General Assembly at the presidential level after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when Israel occupied the Golan Heights. Damascus long accused the UN and other international institutions of siding with Israel because of backing from the US and its Western allies.
In his first speech at the General Assembly on Wednesday, al-Sharaa called for the lifting of international sanctions.
The last Syrian leader to attend the UN summit was former President Nureddin al-Atassi, who served from 1966 to 1970.
Since Assad’s ouster in late 2024, Syria’s new administration has pursued political and economic reforms while promoting social cohesion and working to expand cooperation with regional and international partners.
Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia last December, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963. Sharaa’s new transitional administration was formed in January.
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