Kuleba: We want more interaction with Alliance, more NATO exercises in Ukraine

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took part in a meeting of the NATO North Atlantic Council with the participation of Ukraine and Georgia, dedicated to security problems in the Black Sea region. The press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports.

The Minister stressed that the holding of the NATO meeting at the level of the heads of the foreign affairs agencies with the participation of Ukraine and Georgia is a clear signal of NATO’s continued support for the reform process and the Euro-Atlantic course of both countries.

“I informed the members in detail about the militarization of the temporarily occupied Crimea by Russia as an occupying state. With concrete figures, evidence of its negative impact on the security of the Black Sea region. In addition, signs of nuclearization of the peninsula pose a serious threat to the nuclear nonproliferation regime,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said following the meeting.

“We want more interaction with the Alliance, including more NATO exercises in Ukraine. I noted that Ukraine is moving towards membership in the Alliance in the future and is awaiting the submission of the Membership Action Plan,” the minister said.

Dmytro Kuleba noted that some of the foreign ministers of the NATO member states in their speeches mentioned the Crimean Platform initiative by Ukraine. The meeting participants also welcomed Ukraine’s obtaining the status of an Enhanced Partner with NATO.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister invited the Alliance member states to take an active part in the implementation of the Crimean Platform, which is designed to unite under one umbrella consideration of all aspects of the issue of temporarily occupied Crimea, in particular security in the wide region of the Black Sea. He also informed about the ongoing violations by the Russian Federation of the norms of international humanitarian law in Crimea, in particular, the forced conscription of Ukrainian citizens into the ranks of the armed forces of the Russian Federation.

“A significant deterioration of the situation in the Black Sea region threatens not only the Black Sea countries directly, but also the states of Southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Therefore, I welcome NATO’s readiness to become more involved in the security of the Black Sea region and to strengthen cooperation with Ukraine and Georgia,” Dmytro Kuleba noted.

The Minister noted that the continuation of Ukraine’s participation in international operations to maintain peace and security under the leadership of NATO and the holding in Odesa of the joint NATO-Ukraine command-staff exercises Coherent Resilience scheduled for May 2021 will contribute to deepening cooperation between Ukraine and the Alliance in responding to crisis situations and countering hybrid threats.