Danylo Lubkivsky: Collective security guarantees should become a nodal issue for Kyiv - not only for Ukraine, but for the entire region

12 April 2018, 18:22

For Kyiv it is very important to prioritize the issue of collective security guarantees. Hence, there can be an impulse that will strengthen all-European ties," Danylo Lubkivsky said, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (2014), diplomatic adviser to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk in 2014-2016, during the 11th Kyiv Security Forum on Thursday, April 12.

"Putin's war against all of us and difficulties that Western Europe is experiencing today paradoxically highlighted the peculiarity of our region. Our region, which is often perceived as an annex in historical concepts as an exchangeable coin, a battlefield that can be distributed, is of particular value today. The main signal that Kyiv today is sending to partners, and not just partners, is that it is a special polyphonic region that can offer its contribution to pan-European, Euro-Atlantic security," - he emphasized.

Danylo Lubkivsky noted that the World War I ended one hundred years ago, which "opened the door for the states of the region": "We need to remember the lessons of mutual support that were not implemented then and eventually led to the appearance of monsters that destroyed millions".

"Our region is not only a security client. In my opinion, our region is a contributor to security. This is a region that has the potential - if it is skillful and wise to use - to give impetus not only to security here, but also to a wider European sense," he emphasized.

In addition to the greatest threat of Russian aggression, there are others challenges, he emphasized: "Ukrainian interests, as well as the interests of all our neighbors, equally contradict the weakening of the international positions of our western immediate neighbors and those weaknesses that Russia can use so skillfully, consisting in elemental political egoism, chauvinism, xenophobia. And any other forms of political or intellectual isolationism."

To overcome the current threats, Danylo Lubkivsky stressed that it is very important for Kyiv to make its collective security issues a "collective security assurance", both for its own state and for Moldova, Georgia and potentially Belarus, which is also a target for Russian imperialism."

He recalled that this year marks 50 years since the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: "Ukraine, becoming part of this Treaty, has signed the Budapest Memorandum. One of the guarantors of the Budapest Memorandum, Putin's Russia, had broken its commitments. But there is even more dangerous consequence - it is a consequence of the doubt regarding the collective guarantees of the West for such states as Ukraine. After all, such memoranda were signed not only by Ukraine but also by Belarus and Kazakhstan."

"An impetus can be drawn from our region, which will help to strengthen pan-European ties. For this we need a leadership", - stressed Danylo Lubkivsky.

For reference:

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.

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Danylo Lubkivsky: Collective security guarantees should become a nodal issue for Kyiv - not only for Ukraine, but for the entire region

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