Stoltenberg congratulates Ukraine on receiving Enhanced Opportunities Partner status

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has congratulated Ukraine on being recognised as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner and noted that this status will give Ukraine much more opportunities to participate in NATO exercises and information sharing.

Stoltenberg said this during a press conference on Wednesday following the virtual meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of Defence Ministers, according to the NATO website.

“I would like to congratulate Ukraine on being recognised by the North Atlantic Council, by all NATO Allies as an Enhanced Opportunity Partner. This is an important step in the partnership between NATO and Ukraine, and it stands as a recognition of Ukraine’s strong contribution to NATO-led missions and operations. For instance, in Afghanistan, in Kosovo and elsewhere. And we highly value the contributions of Ukraine to different NATO missions and operations,” the NATO leader emphasized.

As an Enhanced Opportunity Partner, Ukraine will benefit from enhanced access to interoperability programmes, and will have increased access to NATO exercises and more sharing of information. 

“Ukraine will then participate in more NATO exercises. They will have more access to information. So they will come even closer to NATO as we have now also some other Enhanced Opportunity Partners – Finland, Sweden, Georgia, Jordan and Australia, and then we’ll have Ukraine added to that list,” Stoltenberg noted.

On June 12, the North Atlantic Council recognized Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner.

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