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Poroshenko to lead Ukraine delegation at NATO summit in Wales

Kiev sees as a clear signal of support for the country an invitation to hold a special meeting with Ukraine in Wales
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
© EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

KIEV, September 02. /ITAR-TASS/. A Ukrainian delegation led by President Petro Poroshenko will take part in a NATO summit in Wales on September 4-5, a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday.

Kiev sees as a clear signal of support for the country an invitation to hold a special meeting with Ukraine in Wales, the director of the ministry’s information policy department said.

Yevgen Perebeynis said the ministry was working with NATO on a draft joint statement in follow-up of the meeting. He said it should first of all reflect solidarity of the international community with Ukraine, NATO’s support for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the right of the Ukrainian people to independently determine their own future without foreign interference.

Ukraine looks to the start of “practical cooperation on a number of directions of consultative and technical assistance from NATO to build up its defense potential,” Perebeynis said.

Plans are to set up new trust funds to finance the modernization of the Ukrainian armed forces, he said. "We are establishing four trust funds to finance concrete initiatives within four areas; logistics, command and control, cyber defence, and help to military personnel, including wounded personnel," Rasmussen NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Friday.

"The whole purpose of these trust funds is to finance activities that can assist Ukraine in reforming and modernising the armed forces with a view to making them stronger to defend Ukraine," Rasmussen said.

Last Friday Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that his government would seek the cancellation of Ukraine's non-aligned status and resumption of the country's course for NATO membership.