NATO secretary general reiterates support to Ukraine, sees no need for frequent NATO-Ukraine Commission meetings
Ukraine is constantly present on the agenda of NATO, but it does not mean that the NATO-Ukraine Commission should meet at each of the ministerial sessions of the North Atlantic Alliance, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.
"We provide political support for Ukraine, we provide practical support both as an alliance with different trust funds, where we help Ukraine with command and control logistics and many other areas. But in addition to that NATO allies provide training and help and support for Ukraine," Stoltenberg said at a press conference held prior to the NATO ministerial meeting scheduled for February 10-11, the program of which has no meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission.
"Then we have had many meetings in the NATO-Ukraine Commission but we don't [have a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine commission on February 10-11], but we are not able to have commission meetings on all our ministerials. We had a NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting as of just last fall, we will have it again I'm certain, but we, we are not in a position where we can have all the different commissions we have established at all our ministerials," he said.
Stoltenberg said he has met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko recently, said that there will be new meetings and that NATO will continue to provide strong support for Ukraine.
When asked about NATO's stand on the situation in Ukraine's east, Stoltenberg said that the Alliance supports Ukraine.
"We give strong political support for Ukraine, their independence, their territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine but of course we then also support the efforts to find and to implement a negotiated peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine," he said.
The NATO secretary general said that it is extremely important that the Minsk Agreements are fully implemented meaning a ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons and that the international monitors have full access so they can monitor and make sure that the agreement is fully implemented.
"And that's what we are doing, we will continue to do so and we will do so in close cooperation with the government of Ukraine," he added.
