Three presidents set a shared course toward the EU
A joint statement from the leaders of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, issued on 19 July 2021, put closer ties with Brussels at the centre of their foreign policy.
What did it mean when three presidents spoke with one voice on European integration? On 19 July 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili announced in a joint statement that their countries intended to pursue closer relations with the European Union.
The announcement was reported at the time as effectively rebuking Russia. That framing matters: the statement set out a direction for three separate bilateral relationships with the EU, and it also carried a message to Moscow.
For Kyiv, the joint declaration came days after a change in the domestic government. On 13 July 2021, Arsen Avakov, who had served as Ukraine's interior minister since 2014, resigned. The two events were separate, and the reports do not connect them.
The significance of the 19 July statement lay in its form. Rather than three parallel declarations, the leaders presented a common intention, placing Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia side by side in their approach to the EU.
