In his opening address at the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council on Monday, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Koshulynskyi greeted his colleagues from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada stating a positive fact of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council work.
R. Koshulynskyi pointed out peculiarity and significance of holding this forum, taking into account that “it is being held in a very important moment of Ukraine’s history, on which eyes of almost the whole world are fastened.” According to him, it is the present situation in Ukraine that dictates priorities of the agenda.
Deputy Chairman of the Parliament claimed that annual national programmes of Ukraine-NATO cooperation are a basic institutional and normative instrument of different aspects of Ukraine-NATO relations and cooperation. “This text as of now is practically the only systemic document that is being implemented, and which includes our country’s tasks regarding reforming main spheres of its livelihood,” he said.
In this context R. Koshulynskyi stressed that “the biggest part of this transformational tool’s content concerns not military but civil aspects, including domestic policy of Ukraine.” According to him, this programme first of all concerns strengthening democratic institutes, holding free and fair elections, protection of person’s rights and freedoms, freedom of speech, fight against corruption, financial criminality, etc. “These issues are now in the centre of Ukrainian society’s attention,” he stressed and added that interesting and important work awaits for us in the future.
He congratulated members of the Interparliamentary Council with a remarkable date in its history – the 10th establishment anniversary – and wished participants of the round table meeting a fruitful discussion.
In his turn, NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Hugh Bayley stated that Ukraine has chosen a European development model. According to him, on the one side it represents a choice of freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, democracy, fair elections, equal rights and opportunities. On the other side, it represents rejection of corruption and selective justice, etc.
Hugh Bayley also stressed that NATO PA upholds any dialogues between the political forces, since its absence “leads to confrontations and hostility.” Expressing worries about political situation in Ukraine, he called all Parties to the conflict to restore peaceful discussion of the country’s future.
President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly informed about his intentions to meet with representatives of the parliamentary factions, the Government representatives, ambassadors of the NATO member-states, public and mass media representatives in the nearest future.