KIEV, September 2. /TASS/. The results of Wednesday’s meeting between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and US President Joe Biden in Washington look very unreliable, says analyst Nikolai Kapitonenko, of the International Center for International Relations Research.
"Although Zelensky after his conversation with Biden said that he was pleased with the results of the talks, the meeting produced very few concrete agreements. The results of the meeting between the Ukrainian and US presidents look very unreliable," Kapitonenko said in a commentary to the Ukrainian media resource Apostrof.
He remarked that only very vague declarations were pronounced during the visit.
"There was nearly nothing except for ritual rhetoric. Ordinary, customary declarations by US officials were not complemented by anything. We are used to hearing declarations. But there must be something else. I have not seen anything like this yet," he said. At the same time the expert noted "sporadic calls for cooperation on different tracks." There were some framework agreements with some remote prospects, but, he believes, "they looked more like public relations."
"Even if they work properly the way it was declared, there will be no systemic cooperation between Ukraine and the United States anyway, which looks very unreliable," he said.
Kapitonenko believes that Zelensky’s visit was a "PR affair from the very outset, and it could not have been otherwise."
"The way I see it, it was a typical visit to a patron state with a list of requests and wishes. In other words, Zelensky did precisely what some experts and diplomats had warned against. He had it his way, possibly because he was unable to think up something better," Kapitonenko believes.
Framework agreement
Expert Alexander Krayev, of the foreign policy council Ukrainian Prism, believes that the result of the meeting was not the worst of all possible.
"The final document the meeting produced was far more integral and meaningful than I had originally anticipated, in particular that part of it which concerned defense and support for Ukraine’s reform. In other words, in the field of defense a strategic development plan was approved at last by means of a strategic framework agreement," he explained.
Krayev welcomed the fact that Ukraine "displayed some initiative at last" and presented a plan for the country’s transformation. "In other words, whereas before we saying that Zelensky should go to Washington with some reform strategy, now this strategy emerged in the process of discussions with the US. In other words, it has been approved by the Americans de facto," he said.