On 8 March, during his working visit to Türkiye, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The talks were held in a narrow circle and with the participation of delegations. 

"Today, as always, Ukraine and Türkiye held quite sincere and productive talks. The obvious priority is that we are trying to strengthen our security and our strength as much as possible in order to return a just peace for our entire land and all our people and for the Black Sea region as soon as possible," the Head of State said during a meeting with media representatives following the negotiations with the President of Türkiye in Istanbul.

Also in Istanbul, in the framework of the meeting between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the parties signed an Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Türkiye on the establishment of a system for the electronic exchange of preliminary information on goods and vehicles moving between the parties.

In the presence of the leaders of the two countries, the document was signed by the Minister of Defence of Ukraine Rustem Umerov and the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye Omer Bolat.

According to the document, information exchange will be carried out between the State Customs Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Trade of Türkiye. The agreement will establish a system of electronic exchange of preliminary information, which will be used to exchange a predefined set of data in electronic form.

During his working visit to the Republic of Türkiye, the President of Ukraine also visited shipyards where corvettes are being built for the Ukrainian Navy in accordance with the Navy Development Strategy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine until 2036. The Head of State got acquainted with the degree of readiness and equipment of the Ivan Mazepa corvette, its technical characteristics and capabilities. This Ada-type anti-submarine corvette is to become the future flagship of the Ukrainian Navy.

On board the ship, the President met and thanked the Ukrainian Navy servicemen who are taking courses in the operation and maintenance of the ship's systems.

During the visit, the President of Ukraine also met with representatives of the Turkish defence industry.  

The President noted that Ukraine is ready to quickly resolve issues of economic cooperation with Türkiye, particularly in the reconstruction of our country, as well as to facilitate the implementation of bilateral agreements. 

"Ukraine and Türkiye together strengthen each other and our entire region. We are working to jointly produce weapons that will strengthen our region. There are already Turkish business representatives in Ukraine. This is our strategic direction of cooperation - more power for our peoples," the Head of State added.