Ukraine and UK sign security agreement

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Rishi Sunak. Photo: Getty Images

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have signed a bilateral security agreement. The agreement will remain in force until Ukraine joins NATO.

Source: European Pravda

Details: The two leaders signed the document entitled “Agreement on Security Cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” after talks at the Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv, on 12 January.

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This agreement was the first in the field of security agreements to implement the agreements agreed upon during the Vilnius NATO summit between Ukraine, members of the G7 group, and the states that joined them.

The UK’s security commitments under this document will remain in effect until Ukraine joins NATO, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after signing it.

“If such guarantees had been reached in 1991, particularly with the UK, the war would not have started,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy is convinced.

Rishi Sunak, for his part, stressed that this is “the first of the security assurances signed by Ukraine”. The UK Prime Minister stressed that the UK was the first to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons, tanks, long-range missiles, etc.

The leaders also said that the agreement stipulates a ten-year validity term with the possibility of extension. However, if Ukraine joins NATO before the expiration of its security commitments, it will end and be incorporated into the NATO system.

Background:

• On 10 January, the Office of the President stated that the participants in the relevant negotiations moved on to direct processing of the draft agreement between Ukraine and the UK, discussed its main elements and individual thematic blocks, and agreed on a further schedule of bilateral negotiations.
• Before that, Ukraine held the second round of consultations on concluding a bilateral agreement on providing “security guarantees” to Kyiv with the United Kingdom.
• Earlier, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Foreign Minister, said that he received signals from the EU that there are no problems in the negotiations on a bilateral agreement on “security guarantees” between the EU and Ukraine in continuation of the G7 declaration.
• The G7 group countries at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July agreed on a framework document on security guarantees for Ukraine. Specific bilateral agreements with states agreeing to provide security obligations were supposed to be signed later.

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