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Good afternoon and welcome to this ministerial meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission in Defence Ministers’ session.
NATO-Ukraine relations are high on NATO’s strategic agenda. Only a month ago, we had informal consultations with Ukraine at ministerial level in Washington. That event was one in a series where we regularly meet with Ukraine to discuss the future course of our distinctive partnership.
Last year NATO and Ukraine agreed to an ambitious NATO-Ukraine Action Plan and Ukraine set out – in consultation with the NATO Allies – clear objectives in an Annual Target Plan. The main focus of our work today will be to assess the progress made so far in implementing the defence and security sector reform aspects of the Plan.
A key aspect of this will be to take stock of progress on Ukraine's fundamental Defence Review. As a former Defence Minister myself I know how difficult it is to conduct such a review and indeed how painful the military, financial and social implications can be. Other Ministers have gone through the same process. You therefore have our full support, Volodymyr, as you drive this work forward. I cannot overemphasize the importance of making the tough decisions to produce a realistic and balanced programme.
Defence and security sector reforms are the fundamental prerequisite for the ambitious task of full Euro-Atlantic integration which Ukraine has set itself.
At the same time, Ukraine has continued to be active in supporting international peace, maintaining its forces in the Balkans and also deploying an NBC-defence unit to assist Kuwaiti authorities in providing protection for the civil population. Ukraine is also going to contribute to the post-conflict stabilisation of Iraq. NATO welcomes all these important decisions.