Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk met with Charge d'Affaires of the United States in Ukraine Kristina Kvien.
“I have a rather short list of issues that I want to consider today, compared to a year or two ago,” said Kristina Kvien, thanking Ruslan Stefanchuk for his personal support of important reforms, including land, banking and justice.
The Charge d'Affaires of the United States in Ukraine stressed the importance of reforming the Security Service of Ukraine. She expressed her support for the current version of the bill and she hopes that the law will be adopted at this session.
“Together, we have managed to work out a fairly powerful version of this bill, which will soon be introduced in the session hall of the Parliament of Ukraine. At the same time, not all deputies support this aspiration and carry out so-called ‘corrective spam’. We currently have more than 3,800 amendments to this bill. If you put it on the timeline, it is almost four months of the Parliament's work,” Ruslan Stefanchuk said.
The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada informed that there was an idea to consider this bill under the abbreviated procedure.
The participants also discussed the importance of adopting the bill "On approval of the decision of the President of Ukraine on the admission of units of the armed forces of other states to the territory of Ukraine in 2022 to participate in multinational exercises" (Reg. No. 6359). Kristina Kvien expressed hope that the Parliament of Ukraine will be able to approve it by January 1, 2022. Ruslan Stefanchuk assured that he had taken this issue under personal control and for the first time such a decision will be made in time.
The Charge d'Affaires of the United States in Ukraine also noted that the United States is extremely supportive of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. She reminded that there was a recent conversation between the Presidents of the United States and Russia. Today, US President Joe Biden will talk about this with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The participants of the meeting expressed the expectation that the cooperation between Ukraine and the United States will only intensify, in particular - at the parliamentary level.