Zhovkva: We to start negotiations on security guarantees with Ireland soon; we actively working with Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Romania, Poland
In the near future, Ukraine will launch negotiations on security guarantees with Ireland, there is also very active work in this regard with the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Romania and Poland, in addition, they are already ready to sign an agreement with Estonia and Lithuania, Deputy Head of the President's Office Ihor Zhovkva told Interfax-Ukraine.
"I think that in the near future we will start negotiations on security guarantees with Ireland and there will also be a corresponding agreement," Zhovkva said.
Speaking about Ireland, he said "this is a very excellent example, because Ireland immediately joined the G7 declaration and on Wednesday there was a meeting with a delegation of Irish Foreign Ministry led by Deputy Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry Ms. Hyland. We discussed Ireland's potential readiness to begin negotiations on security guarantees."
"Again, a neutral country [Ireland]. What security guarantees can they provide? Maybe. Since security guarantees are not only about weapons. It is also about the economy, about sanctions, it is about ensuring that Russian assets worked to establish a tribunal to punish the aggressor for the crime of aggression and so on," Zhovkva said, adding that "Ukraine invites other countries that declare or have such a neutral status, for example, Austria or Malta, to join G7 declaration and have corresponding agreements with Ukraine."
According to Zhovkva, "we are now working very intensively with the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Romania. Today we held the final round with Poland."
"I can name you some of them [countries] with which we are already at the final stage of negotiations or negotiations on them have ended, and we are just looking for the possibility of signing. This is, for example, two Baltic countries. You know that an agreement was concluded with Latvia, but there is Estonia, there is Lithuania. In the near future, these agreements will be ready for signing," he said.
In addition, according to him, just the day before yesterday Ukraine held the next and final round of negotiations on an agreement on security guarantees with the European Union.
"This is a general agreement with the EU, as an institution uniting 27 countries. I have no right to disclose the contents of the agreement, but you will see that it will also be quite powerful and will be concluded very quickly [it is already known that this will happen on June 27]. Let me remind you that in addition to the G7 countries, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission also joined the Vilnius Declaration of the G7," the Deputy Head of the President's Office.
As reported, Ukraine has already signed a total of 17 security agreements with partner states, including seven signed with all G7 countries. In addition, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the preparation of ten more new security agreements with partners.