President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister of Belgium Bart De Wever held a meeting with representatives of Ukrainian and Belgian defense companies, and also viewed Ukrainian-made defense equipment, in particular reconnaissance and strike UAVs, ground-based robotic systems, and naval drones.
Minister for Strategic Industries Herman Smetanin, Presidential Advisor on Strategic Issues Oleksandr Kamyshin, and Deputy Minister for Strategic Industries Anna Gvozdiar provided information on the characteristics and potential applications of these systems.
The leaders also met with representatives of ten leading Belgian defense companies. Discussions focused on the development of Ukraine’s defense industry, opportunities for joint production, and the localization of manufacturing in Ukraine.
“We are very proud that our industry has contributed so significantly to the defense of Ukraine, to the protection of our civilians, and of course, to supporting our army. All these ‘birds’ are very important to us – and very dangerous for the Russians. I believe that new projects between us – between our industries, our private sectors, and our governments – are extremely important for Ukraine’s survival and for increasing our shared production. And of course, they are very important for the future, for the future security of all of Europe,” President Zelenskyy said.
Bart De Wever noted that Europe must rearm, yet there are currently challenges in scaling up production capacity.
“It would be strange that Ukraine, where a lot of capacities are needed, would not play a crucial factor also in producing and rearming Europe. So it's a very logical cooperation. It is a bilaterally beneficial cooperation. It's something we need to get done,” the Prime Minister of Belgium emphasized.
In the presence of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Bart De Wever, a Memorandum and a Letter of Intent were signed regarding cooperation between Belgian and Ukrainian defense companies. The documents envisage the expansion of joint production and the technical maintenance of air defense systems.
