Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Washington has recorded its support for the Crimean Platform format in the updated US-Ukrainian Charter on Bilateral Strategic Partnership.
“For the first time, the United States has recorded in a document of this level its long-term support for the Crimean Platform,” Kuleba said in an interview published on Thursday, November 11, by the Ukrinform news agency.
According to him, the joint charter provides for expanded cooperation between Kiev and Washington in the defense sphere of Ukraine, in particular, the countries plan to strengthen energy security in Europe, in the Black Sea region.
The document also fixes plans to increase military assistance to Ukraine, to develop new formats of interaction with the participation of the two countries.
As the minister said, the charter demonstrates a positive assessment of Ukraine’s reforms in the development of the justice system, the creation of anti-corruption bodies, the land market, decentralization, and de-oligarchization.
Earlier on Thursday, it became known about the adoption of the US-Ukraine charter within the framework of a strategic partnership. In particular, according to it, the countries will strengthen cooperation in the field of cybersecurity, as well as military interaction in the Black Sea. The document was published on the website of the State Department following negotiations between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.
On October 19, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said that Washington is reiterating the US commitment to strengthening Ukraine’s ability to contain Russia’s “aggression”.
On August 23, Kiev hosted a forum of the “Crimean Platform”, which, according to the adopted declaration, is designed to become a platform “for coordinating international efforts aimed at returning Crimea to Ukraine.” The creation of the platform was initiated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking at the UN General Assembly in September 2020. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the holding of the “Crimean Platform”, said that this is an anti-Russian event, unfriendly to Moscow.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine have deteriorated since a coup d’etat took place in Ukraine in 2014. Kiev launched a military operation against Donbass, whose residents did not agree with the results of the change of power, and the Crimean authorities decided to hold a referendum on reunification with Russia. As a result of the referendum, 96.77% of Crimean voters and 95.6% of Sevastopol residents voted for the entry of the peninsula into the Russian Federation.
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