President Victor Yushchenko has left on a three-day visit to Israel, according to the President`s press-office.
The Ukrainian leader will meet with his Israeli counterpart, Shimon Peres, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Benjamin Netanyahu, chairman of the Likud party, for talks expected to focus on Holodomor recognition and peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They will also speak about how to develop Ukraine’s political, economic and humanitarian ties with Israel.
Following their face-to-face meeting, Yushchenko and Peres will attend a ceremony to sign a joint declaration on enhanced partnership and cooperation between Ukraine and Israel and a memorandum between Ukraine’s economy ministry and Israel’s industry, trade and labor ministry on cooperation to prepare for Euro 2012.
Yushchenko will visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, and meet with Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem. He will also meet with members of Israel’s Jewish-Ukrainian community and speak to the country’s business leaders, politicians and scientists.
The president will then lay a wreath at the monument to Yasser Arafat in Gaza and hold one-on-one talks with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority.
