Talks on security guarantees about to start with one more country

01.09.2023 14:12

Ukrinform

Twenty-eight countries have joined the declaration on providing security guarantees to Ukraine. Negotiations on the conclusion of relevant agreements are already underway with three of them, and the dialogue with one more state may begin soon.

"To date, 21 countries joined the G7 countries. That is, we have 7 plus 21. By the way, we do not compel any country but we say that the Declaration is open. Let me remind you that this Declaration was distributed among all NATO members at the Vilnius Summit but not only the Alliance members began to join it. We have already started negotiations on bilateral legally binding documents with three countries – the USA, Great Britain, and Canada. I can announce that soon we expect to start negotiations with one more country," Deputy Head of the President’s Office Ihor Zhovkva told Ukrinform in an interview.

In his opinion, negotiations with those first countries should be finalized by the end of this year, and ideally, such documents should be signed.

The deputy head of the President’s Office explained that agreements should go through approval procedures.

He also noted that Ukraine expected to receive fairly strong guarantees not only from the USA but from all G7 countries.

"Another repetition of the Budapest Memorandum will definitely not happen. There will be no Budapest 2, 3 or 4. But there will be clear, legally verified, legally binding documents," Zhovkva said.

As reported, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries agreed on a Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine at the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11-12.