Meeting of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov with Philip Barton, Director General, Consular and Security at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom
Meeting of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov with Philip Barton, Director General, Consular and Security at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom of Great Britain has taken place.During the meeting, the parties have discussed pressing issues of the security and defense sector of Ukraine and Russian aggression in the east of our country.
"The shelling of our territory by the Russian-terrorist groups continues despite the further ceasefire agreement", - said O. Turchynov.
According to him, despite the ongoing Russian aggression, the reform of the security and defense sector is not halted, as evidenced by the passing of the "Law on National Security of Ukraine", signed yesterday by the President of Ukraine.
"This law is an important step for us in the direction of European and Euro-Atlantic integration," stressed the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
In addition, the interlocutors discussed potential areas of military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and Great Britain. "We are looking for a new quality on this issue," O. Turchinov said, adding that, in order to intensify such cooperation, the NSDC of Ukraine has adopted a very important decision on liberalization of the defense-industrial complex enterprises' foreign economic activity.
In this context, the Secretary of the NSDC stressed that Ukraine is interested in joint investment projects in the defense-industrial complex with partners from NATO member states.
The sides also paid much attention to cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom in providing cyber security, countering information aggression, as well as cooperation of special services, in particular intelligence.
In addition, the interlocutors discussed the need to extend sanctions against aggressor country Russia, and the negative impact of the North Stream-2 construction project on the energy and security situation in Europe.
In his turn, F. Burton congratulated the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council on the approval and signing of the Law "On National Security of Ukraine", stressing that the United Kingdom "supports positive changes in the security and defense sector of your country and is still ready to help further reform Ukraine," said F. Burton .
In addition, he thanked Ukraine for the support "which the United Kingdom received after the events in Salisbury."
«We have seen great support from our close partner Ukraine after the events in Salisbury. We value this tremendously", said the Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain.
F. Burton emphasized that "the Great Britain has supported and will continue to support democratic independent Ukraine, in particular, at the upcoming NATO summit in Brussels".