Group convened by President’s Office and ex-Secretary General of NATO begins work on Ukraine’s security guarantees

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – FRIDAY, 1 JULY 2022, 20:07

The first draft of recommendations concerning an international agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine should be completed by the end of the month.

Source: Ukrinform, quoting Andrii Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, during a joint press briefing with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, ex-Secretary General of NATO; website of the President of Ukraine

Yermak: "We are planning to complete the first draft of the first set of recommendations this month. We will be working very quickly."

Details: Yermak said that the first meeting of a group convened to make recommendations [concerning an international agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine – ed.] took place on Friday and was attended by around 10 experts from a number of countries – the US, Poland, and Sweden, among others. Yermak also said that the number of experts will grow over time.

The head of the President’s Office added that a multilateral agreement is being prepared, which any country that wants to act as Urkaine’s security guarantors will be able to join. He underscored that this does not preclude the existence of bilateral agreements between countries that might "want to supplement these guarantees with additional guarantees" which will apply to bilateral relations.

The website of the President of Ukraine states that Andrii Yermak and Anders Fogh Rasmussen held the first meeting of the Group on International Security Guarantees for Ukraine on 1 July.

The group included: former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; former US Under Secretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy; former Swedish Prime Minister and former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt; former British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs William Hague; former Federal Minister for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany Norbert Röttgen; former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland and Member of the European Parliament Anna Fotyga; director of ECFR's Wider Europe Programme, French diplomat Marie Dumoulin; President of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, diplomat Giampiero Massolo; Director of the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW), Polish political scientist Adam Eberhardt; political expert Roxana Cristescu; and people’s deputy of Ukraine, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy Andrii Kostin.

The website of the President of Ukraine states that: "The members of the working group act as experts on their own behalf and do not represent the governments of their countries or the organizations in which they work.".

Earlier: On 24 May, Andrii Yermak announced that an international group will be created to work on recommendations concerning security guarantees for Ukraine.