The absence of Ukrainian representatives at the NATO summit, which is to be held on June 14 in Brussels, North Atlantic Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg explained with the “relatively short time” of the meeting, as Interfax-Ukraine reports.
According to Jens Stoltenberg, the participation of partner countries, such as Ukraine and Georgia, is not relevant as the summit will be only one day long.
“First, the summit will only be for Allies because it is a relatively short summit - one day - then as for next time, maybe…” Stoltenberg stated. “But this time, it's a relatively short summit and therefore no partnership formats,” he added.
NATO Secretary General also noted that during the meetind the security of the Black Sear region will be discussed.
“On the Black Sea, well, first of all, we have increased our presence in the Black Sea. Three NATO Allies are littoral states, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. But we also have two highly valued partners, Georgia and Ukraine. We work together with them on also maritime security. We have worked with the Georgian Coast Guard. Last time I visited Ukraine, we visited the Naval Academy in Odessa, where NATO training advisors helped to strengthen the Ukrainian Navy. So we have littoral NATO Allies in the Black Sea region, but also close partners, where we will work together on Black Sea security. We exchange information, we help to build capacity, and we have NATO presence in the Black Sea region on land, in the air and at sea,” Stoltenberg said.
“… Maybe we will then decide to have more time and then it is likely that having high-level partnership meetings will increase. But I'm not going to speculate about when we'll have the next high-level summit-level meeting with partners,” Stoltenberg added.