April 5 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Syria on Sunday for talks with his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa, as Kyiv seeks to promote its military expertise across the region following the outbreak of the Iran war.
In recent weeks, Zelenskiy has visited several countries across the Middle East, offering Ukrainian expertise in countering drone and missile attacks, developed during its four-year war with Russia.
In Turkey on Saturday, Zelenskiy said he had agreed “new steps” in security cooperation with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, and discussed co-operation opportunities in joint gas infrastructure projects and joint gas field development.
“Today in Damascus. We continue our active Ukrainian diplomacy aimed at real security and economic cooperation,” Zelenskiy said on X.
It was the Ukrainian leader’s first trip to Syria since diplomatic relations were re-established at the end of last year following the fall of Syria’s long-time strongman Bashar al-Assad.
Zelenskiy’s talks with Sharaa were linked to defence in light of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, one Syrian source, a government adviser, said. Syria is not known to have any air defences capable of dealing with Iranian drones or missiles.
During Zelenskiy’s visits to Gulf states last weekend, Ukraine signed long-term military cooperation deals with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and he said that a similar agreement was close to completion with UAE.
Syria is home to two major Russian military bases, used by its navy and air force. Sharaa said on Tuesday at an event in Chatham House in London that work was underway to transform these into “centres to train the Syrian army”.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari, Pavel Polityuk and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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