Stephen Larrabee: Joining NATO has given security to Eastern Europe, and therefore, prerequisites for development

Such a statement was delivered by the Distinguished Chair in European Security, Pardee RAND Graduate School (USA) Stephen Larrabee during the 11th Kyiv Security Forum in Kyiv.

"The issues Eastern European countries faced with are primarily economic, and so here it is necessary to think first of all about security. And in order to give the people of Eastern Europe the opportunity to implement necessary reforms, they should first have the necessary conditions for such activities ... That is why NATO's decision on enlargement was correct. If we did not create security structures, we would have left Eastern Europe at the mercy of Russia, depending on the Russian Federation. And given the lack of democracy in Russia, this fact would have affected them," he said.

Stephen Larrabee stressed that freedom and security are interconnected: "If you do not solve both parts of this equation, then you will not be able to produce a good policy. The issue of freedom without security does not work."

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The annual international event Kyiv Security Forum was launched by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation Open Ukraine in 2007 as a platform for high-level discussions on the current issues in Europe and the Black Sea region. 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.

The event is being held with the support of NATO Information and Documentation Center in Ukraine, the German Marshall Fund, The Victor Pinchuk Foundation, The Royal Institute of International Relations, Chatham House (UK), and The Regional Representative Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Ukraine.