Opening remarks

by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the Informal meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission

Good afternoon and welcome to this informal meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at the level of Defence Ministers. It is a particular pleasure to welcome Mr. Yuriy Yekhanurov, Ukraine's Minister of Defence.

Today we will consider the priorities for NATO-Ukraine defence and security cooperation in preparation for the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting to be held at the Bucharest Summit in April.

Our meeting will also provide a timely opportunity to discuss the future of our security relationship, in particular the ways in which we could further enhance our support to the ongoing transformation of Ukraine’s security sector.

Let me stress that the Alliance highly values the concrete results that NATO and Ukraine have achieved together during the ten years of NATO-Ukraine Distinctive Partnership and is committed to further deepening our cooperation.

Ukraine has NATO’s continued support for its efforts to pursue reforms and move closer to the Euro-Atlantic community.

We greatly value Ukraine’s active support for NATO-led operations and missions and look forward to its continuation.

The Alliance also welcomes the progress achieved in reforming the Ukrainian defence and security sectors, as well as in laying the foundation for systemic reforms in the intelligence and security agencies. We encourage Ukraine to continue these efforts.

With this introduction, I now would like to offer the floor to Mr Yekhanurov to deliver his opening remarks.