Arseniy Yatsenyuk supports creation of new format of cooperation “NATO+”: Armed forces of the Alliance and Ukraine should have the same qualification and armaments

“You shouldn’t be afraid of providing Ukraine with defense weapons. Don’t be afraid of Russia. We are protecting your borders. Our warriors with lethal force defend the security of Europe”, Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the partners from NATO during the 10th Kyiv Security Forum held by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation Open Ukraine.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk spoke at panel discussion “Strengthening cooperation and security between Ukraine and the Baltic States”, attended, at his invitation, by the Prime Ministers of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman, of Estonia – Jüri Ratas, of Latvia – Māris Kučinskis and of Lithuania – Saulius Skvernelis. This prime-ministerial format was first established in 2015 in Riga at Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s initiative who then was the head of the Ukrainian government.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that Europe and NATO “should make conclusions how to respond to new challenges”.

He also noted that Ukraine “had paid too high a price for the lack of political will among the NATO member-states back in 2008 to declare to the world that Ukraine and Georgia would receive the Membership Action Plan in NATO”: “This price is the annexed territories of Georgia. This price is the annexed Crimea, temporarily lost Donetsk and Luhansk. This price is the war crimes, including those happening in Syria”.

“Force should always be responded with force. It cannot be different in the world. This is the only format that is understood by dictatorial regimes”, he stressed.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has expressed the belief that the partners from NATO “would think over the new format of cooperation”: “I would call it NATO+”.

“I believe that this format, NATO+, should make provision for armed forces of its participants to be fully interconnected and inter-efficient with that of NATO member-states. We must fully comply with all the standards of the armed forces of member-states of the Alliance”, he stressed.

“I realize that currently there is no political will to accept Ukraine in the Alliance any soon. But there must be the political will to put the armed forces of NATO member-states and the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the same level of qualification, make them speak the same language and defend themselves with the same armaments”, the leader of the “People’s Front” Party stated.

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Kyiv Security Forum was launched by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation Open Ukraine in 2007 is an annual international event to high-level discussions on the current issues in the Black Sea region and wider Europe. The Forum aims at increasing security cooperation between the EU and the Black Sea region, raising awareness about regional developments among key regional players, promoting the role of independent and non-governmental actors in setting the security agenda in Europe.