Zelenskyy talks about "frank dialogue" with Scholz on future security architecture

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The Ukrainian president spoke on his Telegram about "a frank dialogue on many issues and our vision of the future security architecture".

Zelenskyy has also held a phone conversation with Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU/CSU bloc, who secured victory in Germany’s snap parliamentary elections.

On 4 March, the German CDU/CSU and SPD parties, which are negotiating the formation of a government led by Friedrich Merz, agreed on a multi-billion-dollar defence and infrastructure funding package. They agreed to push for an easing of Germany's debt brake to make it easier to finance the defence sector.

The parties agreed that all defence spending exceeding 1% of GDP would be exempt from debt constraints. In addition, a special infrastructure fund totalling 500 billion over 10 years is to be created, from which the federal states will also benefit.