Iryna Vereshchuk: Defense cooperation between Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Turkey will become more urgent
“NATO’s course is enshrined in our constitution. It is not yet known when Ukraine will join NATO. Still, I think it is not a matter of decades, but years,” Iryna Vereshchuk, Chairperson of the Sub-committee on National Security and Defense of the Verkhovna Rada Committee of Ukraine, told Report‘s East European Bureau.
According to him, despite Russia’s intervention, the world is changing:
“Unfortunately, Ukraine has no choice but to join NATO to ensure its long-term security. As for the formats of cooperation with strategic partners, both multilateral and bilateral forms work. Over the past year and a half, Ukraine has initiated three new formats for international collaboration in the Baltic-Black Sea region: the Lublin Triangle with Poland and Lithuania, the Association Trio with Georgia and Moldova, and the Ukrainian-Turkish “Quadriga”. In the latter case, we are talking about regular meetings of the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Turkey.”
The chairperson of the committee said that both Azerbaijan and Turkey are strategic partners of Ukraine:
In this regard, the political and defense cooperation between Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Turkey will become more urgent.