У спільній Заяві парламентарії двох країн наголосили на наявності значних викликів в Чорноморському регіоні, які потребують скоординованих дій на регіональному рівні обох країн.
Парламентарії відзначили, що Чорне море має всі можливості бути морем миру та розвитку, що розширить економічні і торгівельні можливості, а також можливості розвитку для країн регіону. Чорноморські транзитні маршрути мають великий потенціал для диверсифікації енергетичних і транспортних маршрутів, що прямують до Європи, і, отже, зниження енергетичної залежності Європи від Росії.
Українські та грузинські парламентарії погодилися, що, через агресивну поведінку Росії по відношенню до її безпосередніх сусідів і триваючі порушення міжнародного права та міжнародних зобов’язань, Росія є основним дестабілізуючим фактором у Чорноморському регіоні.
Разом з тим, актуальним залишається питання про невизнання депутатів Державної Думи обраних на окупованих територіях як офіційних представників РФ, та накладання на них персональних санкцій. Рішучим кроком для забезпечення безпеки і стабільності в Європі буде розглянути можливість щодо розширення військової присутності країн-членів НАТО на території України з метою забезпечення безпеки недоторканості і суверенітету української території в умовах посилення агресивної риторики Кремля та нарощування угруповання збройних сил Росії у безпосередній близькості до державного кордону України.
Найголовнішим питанням, яке потребує переконливої підтримки країн-членів НАТО та яке найбільш ефективно здатне забезпечити безпеку і стабільність в регіоні, залишається питання підтримки євроатлантичного курсу України в частині що стосується надання Плану дій щодо членства в НАТО та видимої перспективи вступу до лав Альянсу.
Парламентарії закликали Північноатлантичний Альянс продовжувати посилювати свою присутність у Чорноморському регіоні та поглиблювати свою практичну участь, що стане передумовою створення безпечного та стабільного Чорноморського регіону, а отже – розширення євроатлантичної безпеки.
Парламентарії також висловили сподівання, що, беручи до уваги важливість безпечного та стабільного Чорноморського регіону для ширшої євроатлантичної безпеки, Альянс має розглянути можливість розробки всеосяжної чорноморської стратегії, яка б чітко виражала інтереси НАТО в регіоні та визначала кроки до підвищення його безпеки.
Парламентарії відзначили, що найкращою можливістю відобразити бачення Альянсу щодо Чорноморського регіону буде нова Стратегічна концепція НАТО, яку планується до прийняття на майбутньому саміті НАТО у 2022 році.
Повний текст спільної Заяви англійською мовою додається.
Joint Statement of the Parliamentarians of Ukraine and Georgia on the Security Environment in the Black Sea region
Parliamentarians of Ukraine and Georgia have gathered in Odessa to discuss the security situation in the Black Sea region within the NATO-Ukraine Interparliamentary Council (UNIC) and NATO-Georgia Interparliamentary Council (GNIC) joint meeting.
Parliamentarians identified significant challenges and opportunities in the Black Sea area, which require coordinated action at the regional level.
Parliamentarians noted that Black Sea has every potential of being the sea of peace and development, enhancing the economic, trade and development opportunities for the countries of the region.
Parliamentarians highlighted that Black Sea transit routes have great potential to diversify energy and transportation lines heading to Europe and therefore reduce Europe’s energy dependence on Russia.
Parliamentarians agreed that taking into account Russia’s aggressive behavior towards its immediate neighbors and continued violations of international law and of its international obligations, Russia represents a major destabilizing factor in the Black Sea region.
Parliamentarians condemned the ongoing occupation and steps towards de-facto annexation of Georgia’s two indivisible regions – Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia by the Russian Federation, constant violations of the EU-mediated 12 August 2008 Ceasefire Agreement, illegal military build-up and military exercises, installation of barbed-wire fences and other artificial barriers in the heart of Georgia’s territory, closure of crossing points along the occupation line, grave violation of human rights in the occupied territories, including torture and murder, restriction of freedom of movement and illegal detention and kidnappings, ethnic discrimination of Georgians, as well as denying hundreds of thousands of IDPs and refugees forcefully expelled from Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions as a result of multiple waves of ethnic cleansing, of the right to return home. Parliamentarians expressed their concern that Russia’s illegal steps towards the occupied regions of Georgia not only threaten peace and security in Georgia but also has negative implications on the security of wider Black Sea region and the whole Euro-Atlantic area. Parliamentarians highlighted the importance of advancing in the process of peaceful conflict resolution and of attaining tangible results in the negotiations within the Geneva International Discussions, while underscoring the necessity of implementation by Russia of its international commitments, inter alia of the EU-mediated 12 August 2008 Ceasefire Agreement to achieve lasting peace and security in the region. Parliamentarians also stressed that stronger engagement of international community is essential and thus highlighted the importance of keeping Georgia and Ukraine high on international agenda.
Russia, committing armed aggression against Georgia and occupying part of its sovereign territory, had shown its aggressive and hypocritical nature. Only decisive action of Georgian people together with international community involvement could stop Russian aggression. That was made clear that Russia is relentless in pursuing its own neo-imperial ambitions, and Ukraine became the next object of such ambitions. Since 2014, the Ukrainian nation, at the cost of great efforts and losses, has countered Russian aggression in its various forms, from overt warfare to political provocations at the international level.
Using hybrid methods of influence, Russia has created artificial instability in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine and started an armed aggression by regular units of the armed forces and special services, held an illegal pseudo-referendum and occupied the Crimean peninsula. During the seven years of occupation, Crimea has been purposefully degraded from a tourist region into a desert and an advanced Russian military outpost in the Azov and Black Sea region. Actions taken by occupational administration have caused humanitarian and ecological catastrophe. Systematic cases of gross violations of fundamental human rights, intimidation of local population, systematic cases of harassment, illegal detention, torture, and murders on ethnic, religion and political ground have been reported. In addition, Russia violates international law, in terms of the laws and customs of war by providing policy based on militarization of occupied peninsula, propaganda of warfare and compulsory conscription of the local population.
Moscow, through overt armed aggression, have occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, turning these areas into war zones and ruins. Such status quo is used as an instrument of direct pressure on the Ukrainian authorities. Despite Ukraine's repeated attempts to establish dialogue and promote peace initiatives, Russia persists to commit gross violations of the UN Charter, violates the ceasefire regime, resulting in casualties among civilians and Ukrainian AF servicemen. Russian military command also provides occupation forces with all necessary weapons, ammunition and military equipment, maintains, forbidden by Minsk arrangements, weapon systems close to the contact line. At the same time Russian occupational administration systematically destroys the region's social infrastructure and industry, and continues to kidnap, torture and murder Ukrainian citizens who denies to cooperate with the Russian occupation authorities.
Russia's aggressive activities, under the statement of NATO's influence decrease in the region, are aimed at gaining full dominance over the Black and Azov Seas. Such actions, taken by Kremlin will make this area a potential zone of instability, increase the risk of military incidents at sea and in the air, limit the freedom of navigation in violation of existing rules of international maritime law.
Russia's illegal actions against Ukraine could lead to the loss of Ukraine’s state control over the exclusive maritime zone, the annexation of its sovereign waters, and naval blockade in order to destroy country's economy.
The build-up of Russian forces along Ukraine's borders, the development of military infrastructure and the accumulation of significant reserves of weapon and military equipment pose a threat of further expansion of armed aggression against Ukraine and dramatically raise the security risks for the whole Europe.
Taking into consideration all the above-mentioned, Parliamentarians agreed that greater NATO involvement by in ensuring the security in the Black Sea region is of crucial importance. Parliamentarians noted that NATO should further engage aspirant countries- Georgia and Ukraine in its efforts towards strengthening Black Sea security, which is an indivisible part of Euro-Atlantic security.
Parliamentarians underlined the importance of Georgia’s and Ukraine’s engagement in the NATO’s efforts towards strengthening Black Sea security. They also noted the fruitful existing cooperation with Georgia and Ukraine on Black Sea security whereby these partner states participate in the dedicated strategic discussions with the Alliance and share information and analysis of the current situation in the region with Allies on a regular basis. Moreover, aspirant Georgia and Ukraine are cooperating with the Alliance on concrete practical cooperation initiatives aimed at strengthening the Black Sea security based on 2018 Summit, 2019 and 2020 Foreign Ministerial decisions.
In this context, Parliamentarians highlighted the importance to increase the intelligence exchange and real-time radar data sharing with special focus on illegal, hostile maritime activities in Abkhazian segment of Georgia's Black Sea coast, Ukraine's Black Sea and Sea of Azov coast as well as information concerning illegal actions on the temporary occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Gross interest presents any information towards threatening activity of Russian armed forces’ grouping augmentation close to Ukrainian state border, which creates preconditions to further armed aggression expansion.
In addition, in order to reduce the level of existing threats from the Russian Federation in the Azov-Black Sea region and minimize their impact on Ukraine, it is necessary to initiate updated formats of cooperation between the Black Sea region countries. In the framework of cooperation with NATO, there is also a strong necessity of strengthening the permanent military presence of Allied forces in the Black Sea region, including by increasing the scale and intensity of joint exercises, conducting patrols of Ukrainian territorial waters by joint NATO and Ukrainian shipping groups, control and ensure the freedom of navigation at sea. Besides that, single mechanism for rapid response to violations of international maritime law should be established.
Russia's attempts to legitimize the previously occupied territories remain an important issue. Such Russian actions need to be implicitly condemned by all members of the international community. We call on parliamentarians to hold the officials of NATO member-states personally responsible for illegal visits to the occupied territories and for cooperating with representatives of the occupation administrations. At the same time, there is a relevant issue of non-recognition of deputies of the State Duma, elected in the occupied territories as official representatives of the Russian Federation and imposition of personal sanctions against them. The combination of these actions will demonstrate the determination of Allies to counter Russian aggression.
Another decisive step to ensure security and stability in Europe will be consideration of the possibility to expand the NATO military presence towards the territory of Ukraine. Positive decision in this context will certainly increase the security of the inviolability and sovereignty of Ukrainian territory in the face of intensifying Kremlin aggressive rhetoric and Russian armed forces aggravation around Ukrainian borders.
The most important issue, which needs the convincing support of NATO member states and which shall be the most effective measure in ensuring security and stability in the region, remains the issue of supporting Georgia’s and Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic course in terms of providing a Membership Action Plan and a visible prospect of joining the Alliance.
Parliamentarians call on NATO to further enhance its presence in the Black Sea region and deepen its practical engagement, which will be a precondition of safe, secure and stable Black Sea region and therefore, of wider Euro-Atlantic security.
With this in view, Parliamentarians emphasized the importance of strengthened deterrence and defense in the Black Sea region to effectively counter Russia’s revanchist posture aimed at reshaping the geopolitical balance of the region. Thus, looking into the lessons learnt from the Enhanced Forward Presence would be useful and applicable to NATO cooperation with like-minded democracies in the Black Sea.
Parliamentarians expressed hope that, taking into account the importance of the secure and stable Black Sea region for the wider Euro-Atlantic security, NATO should consider a possibility of elaborating a comprehensive Black Sea strategy, which would state clearly the interests of NATO in the region and steps towards enhancing its security.
Parliamentarians noted that the best opportunity to reflect the vision of the Alliance regarding the Black Sea region will be a new Strategic Concept of NATO, scheduled to be adopted at the future NATO Summit in 2022.