KIEV, May 28. /ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian government has adopted a draft agreement on setting up a joint brigade with Poland and Lithuania. Parliament-appointed acting Defense Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Koval stated this on Wednesday.

“The government has approved the draft agreement on last week’s Tuesday. It is very important, because Poland and Lithuania are members of NATO, and Ukraine within the joint brigade will look up to the alliance’s standards,” the ministry’s press service quoted him as saying.

According to the Defense Ministry’s press service, the agreement on setting up the brigade is expected to be signed within a month. The Ukrainian part of the brigade will be located on the base of the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in the Lviv region.

The idea of creating a tripartite brigade was proposed in November 2009, when defense ministers of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement stating the intentions to set up a joint unit. According to Poland’s Minister of National Defense Tomasz Siemoniak, this brigade could take part in stabilization missions and help Ukraine “to build the army”.