The best guarantee for Ukraine’s security is a successful implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU, - Pavlo Klimkin

One of the best possibilities to guarantee Ukraine’s security is a successful implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, even though Russia sees such an agreement as an intrusion into the RF sphere of interests. This is the opinion shared by Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin during the panel “Association Agreement With the EU and Strong Relations With Russia – Difficult? Or Impossible?” at the 11th Annual Meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) on Saturday in Kyiv.

“The idea of the Association Agreement (between Ukraine and the EU) is perceived by Russia as an intrusion into the sphere of its interests. One of the best possibilities to guarantee Ukraine’s security is a successful implementation of the Association Agreement”, pointed out the Minister.
Klimkin emphasized that economically, Ukraine’s cooperation with the European Union does not impede cooperation with Russia. “Economically speaking, it is not a problem at all”, he pointed out.
Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Development who also took part in the discussion, is confident that the EU and the Customs Union should deepen their economic cooperation. “I think, stakes should be raised in this game. It seems to me that the only way to make sure there are no more dividing lines for us is to start negotiations on free trading between the EU and the Customs Union”.

Yalta European Strategy (YES) is the leading public diplomacy platform in Eastern Europe to develop strategies for Ukraine and Wider Europe and promote Ukraine’s European integration. YES was established in 2004 by Ukrainian businessman and public figure Victor Pinchuk and is led by a distinguished board including President of Poland (1995-2005) Aleksander Kwasniewski, former Secretary General of NATO (1995-1999) and EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy (1999-2009) Javier Solana, and others.

The 11th Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting will be streamed live at yes-ukraine.org in English and Ukrainian.
The official Twitter of the 11th YES Annual Meeting: @YES_Ukraine,  Hashtag: #YESUkraine2014

Special Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting include:
DTEK, ALFA-BANK (UKRAINE), BURISMA HOLDINGS
Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting are:
SHELL, INTERNATIONAL RENAISSANCE FOUNDATION
Media Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting are:
ICTV, UKRAYINSKA PRAVDA, NOVOYE VREMYA STRANY (NV), ERA FM