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Ukrainian parliament fails to ratify agreement on opening NATO office in Ukraine

Lawmakers were unable to secure enough votes to ratify the agreement on the opening of NATO's representative office in Ukraine

Opening ceremony of NATO military exercises in Ukraine (archive) EPA/IVAN BOBERSKYY

Opening ceremony of NATO military exercises in Ukraine (archive)

© EPA/IVAN BOBERSKYY

KIEV, February 3. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has failed on Wednesday to ratify the agreement on the opening of NATO's representative office in Ukraine. Lawmakers were unable to secure enough votes for this decision.

After that, Verkhovna Rada vice speaker Andrey Parubiy immediately closed the morning session and said the voting on this document had been postponed for February 4.

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Presenting the project, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said NATO was due to open a representative office in Ukraine for the first time as an international organization. "It is actually a full-fledged embassy on the basis of the communications office and NATO Information and Documentation Center," he said addressing the parliament.

According to Klimkin, the office would coordinate all projects related to cooperation between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Alliance. He noted that the ratification of the agreement and the opening of the representative office would make it possible for NATO’s trust funds aimed at funding Ukraine’s defense capabilities to begin working.

An agreement on NATO’s representative office in Kiev was reached in September during the visit of the NATO Secretary General to Ukraine.

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