Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk held a series of meetings within the first day of the Parliamentary Summit of the Crimean Platform in Zagreb, Croatia

Press Service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
Published on 24 October 2022, at 23:39

In particular, the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament met with colleagues from Sweden, the European Parliament and Turkey.

Ruslan Stefanchuk expressed deep gratitude to the speakers for their personal presence at the event, for constant support of Ukraine, for constant communication and cooperation within the framework of inter-parliamentary diplomacy, a vivid example of which is the holding of the Summit.

"The uniqueness and strength of this meeting is that the parliaments will speak on behalf of their peoples, speak first of all about issues of global security," the Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine noted, stressing that Crimea is proof of how the principles of global security are being violated and when one country granted itself the right to seize the territory of another.

He expressed hope that all the issues planned for consideration at the Summit, in particular the strengthening of sanctions and pressure on the russian federation, the issue of military, humanitarian and financial support for Ukraine, its movement towards the EU and NATO, will have effective solutions united by "a powerful by voice - by the voice of the parliamentarians who are part of the Crimea Platform".

The First Vice-President of the European Parliament, Othmar Karas, in his turn expressed admiration for the victory of the Ukrainian people and the Armed Forces of Ukraine and assured his Ukrainian colleague of the full support of our state, which is fighting today for European democratic values.

"We have an idea to create a separate working group at the level of the European Union, which is designed to promote the principles of democracy and parliamentarism, based on the needs of both the European and Ukrainian parliaments," Othmar Karas noted, adding that the First Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform became an example of coordination between national parliaments, in particular in helping Ukraine, so a mechanism should also be worked out that would allow coordination of such efforts at the level of the Council of Europe.

The recently re-elected Speaker of the Riksdag of the Kingdom of Sweden, Andreas Norlen, also assured his Ukrainian colleague that both the new Parliament of Sweden and the new Government are unanimous in supporting Ukraine in its struggle in this war.

"We will only strengthen our cooperation to support Ukraine and this applies to all aspects. We are talking about humanitarian, military and economic support," noted Andreas Norlen.

During the meeting with the Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye, Mustafa Sentop, the parties noted Turkiye's great role in unblocking Ukrainian ports and solving the issue of world food security. Ruslan Stefanchuk also expressed his gratitude to the Turkiye's authorities, in particular to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who took personal leadership in matters of liberating our defenders, the defenders of Mariupol, from russian captivity.

The participants of the meeting also discussed plans to strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation, in particular in the area of ??ratification of relevant international trade agreements.