NATO's role growing amid new challenges – Poroshenko

12:32, 10.07.2017 1 min read

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko welcomes NATO's recent steps to enhance security in the world.

"I'd like to say that the weight and the role of NATO are growing even more amid new challenges international security is facing in the context of the events happening around Ukraine," Poroshenko said at a Ukraine-NATO Commission meeting in Kyiv on Monday.

He says that this is Russian aggression that has prompted NATO to take a number of measures to strengthen security in the region. "I can even say that NATO has awakened and this has given the Alliance a new lease of life. The allies have become even more convinced of the need to join hands for mutual protection and of the importance of increasing defense spending and expanding their global footprint," the president said.

Poroshenko sees symbolism in Ukraine's welcoming NATO partners now as a country that has legislatively defined its accession to NATO as one of the foreign policy priorities.