27 June 2018, 13:47
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy held a meeting with Laura Cooper, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Within the framework of his working visit to the USA, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy met with Laura Cooper, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia.
At the start of the meeting, Laura Cooper congratulated the Speaker on the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On National Security”.
Andriy Parubiy said that on the eve of his US trip he had signed the Law "On National Security" and sent it for signature to the President of Ukraine. "This is an important event for the Ukrainian people. This is an important and decisive step towards Ukraine's membership in NATO. I believe that Ukraine will be a member of NATO," observed Andriy Parubiy.
The US-NATO expertise in elaboration of the said law was highly praised by the Ukrainian Parliament’s Speaker.
Since the aforementioned law is rather sort of umbrella agreement, it provides for adopting a number of important bills in the field of national security and defense, and the work on the bills has already begun at the core committee.
The parties also discussed a whole cluster of cyber-security and energy security issues, including would-be Russian meddling in Ukraine’s election by means of cyber-attacks and inadmissibility of the Nord Stream 2 gas line for the European energy security.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine spoke about the priorities of regional security in Central and Eastern Europe.
“At the very border with Russia, we have been building a “ridge of freedom” aiming to 'curb' the aggressive state. The free world countries abutting the Russian Federation have become sort of “a guard” for Europe shielding it from Russia’s manifestations of aggression. Together with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova and Georgia, Ukraine has been demonstrating unity in pursuing the regional security aims. We all are forced to show the world that Putin’s threat is global by nature,” stated Andriy Parubiy.
The Ukrainian Speaker stressed there was a severe need to create a regional centre for combating Russian hybrid threats in Ukraine.