Ukraine proposes to sign intl treaty on security guarantees
Ukraine has come up with a proposal to sign a new international treaty on security guarantees, which will include an article similar to Article 5 of the NATO Charter, David Arakhamia, the head of the Servant of the People faction, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said.
"About a new system of security guarantees for Ukraine. We insist that it be an international treaty, which will be signed by all security guarantors, which will be ratified so as not to repeat the mistake that was once in the Budapest Memorandum. It turned out to be just a piece of paper, and we learned now very, very painfully. We want this to be a working international mechanism of concrete security guarantees for Ukraine," Arakhamia said at a briefing following the talks with the Russian delegation in Istanbul on Tuesday.
He said that the agreement, according to the proposal put forward by Ukraine, will include the obligation of the guarantor countries to provide Ukraine with military assistance in the event of an attack, similar to Article 5 of the NATO Charter.
"But there is even a tougher activation mechanism, because NATO has no restrictions on how many consultations they can have. That is, if something happens, then consultations can then last for a year. We say that consultations should be held within three days, and even if this is a war, aggression, it can be a military operation, it can be disguised, we already understand this – no matter what happens, within three days of consultation, and after that the guarantor countries undertake to legally provide us with assistance in the form of military assistance, armed forces, weapons, closed skies, everything that we now need and that we cannot get. This is our proposal," Arakhamia said.
He said that among the guarantors of its security, Ukraine sees, first of all, the countries of the UN Security Council, in particular the UK and China, the United States, France, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel.
"We propose to make free accession to the guarantee agreement – that is, we have the minimum amount of guarantees that we want to receive, but if other countries also want to join, we will give them such a legal right," Arakhamia added.
As for the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as the Crimean peninsula, international security guarantees will temporarily not work for these territories.
Also, the agreement will stipulate that all guarantor countries shall not only speak against Ukraine's accession to the European Union, but shall also support this process.
"We are now communicating in official communications with the guarantor countries, with many of them, we see real interest. Some countries have already given preliminary consent, but we are waiting for official messages," Arakhamia said.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, at the end of the round of negotiations in Istanbul, called them constructive. He said that the Russian side received from Ukraine "their clearly formulated position for inclusion in the agreement" for consideration.
"These proposals will be considered in the near future, reported to the President of the Russian Federation, and our corresponding response will be given," the head of the delegation said.
He also said that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is possible simultaneously with the initialing of the peace treaty.
The head of the delegation also said that from the very beginning, the possibility of a meeting of the presidents was discussed, provided that the treaty was ready for signing by the heads of state: first, the treaty was prepared, then the treaty was approved by the negotiators, endorsed by the foreign ministers at the meeting, after which the possibility of a meeting of the heads of state to sign this treaty was discussed.