Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba notes that presidential decree No. 99/2021 on foreign diplomatic institutions will help make them more mobile and effective, which will significantly expand Ukraine's diplomatic presence in the world, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

"The innovations of the presidential decree on foreign diplomatic institutions will allow us to optimize management and make embassies more mobile, efficient and cost-effective for taxpayers," Kuleba said.

According to the minister, one of the key innovations is the creation of a new format of ambassadors with a residence in Kyiv. "From now on we will be able to create Ukrainian embassies abroad with a residence in Kyiv. That is, the embassy is physically located in Ukraine and ensures the presence of our state in a foreign country remotely. In the era of total online mode, such an institution can perform almost all the same functions as the one physically located in host country," he explained.

The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed that this format of a remote diplomatic presence is successfully functioning in many foreign countries, in particular the European Union, and now Ukraine is beginning to embody this advanced experience as an addition to the traditional formats of diplomatic presence.

In addition, the minister spoke about the new format of Ukrainian embassies abroad "1+2" (an ambassador and two diplomats), which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now starting to implement. "The diplomatic service is in many ways similar to the military. Its future lies with compact, mobile units that are able to quickly and efficiently perform assigned tasks. Therefore, we have developed a new format. 1 + 2 embassies will become just such compact diplomatic teams, including in countries and regions, in which Ukraine has not been represented yet," said Kuleba.

The minister recalled that he sets five priority tasks for all heads of foreign diplomatic institutions, namely, to strengthen Ukraine's security, increase trade and investment, help Ukrainians abroad, build up Ukraine's "soft power" abroad, and expand freedom of travel for Ukrainians.

"The innovations allow today to expand the geography of Ukraine's presence in the world in practice with significant savings of taxpayers' money. More presence means more opportunities for the Ukrainian state, Ukrainian business and citizens," Kuleba summed up.