Polish national security chief meets Ukrainian defence minister
The head of Poland's National Security Bureau (BBN), Paweł Soloch, held talks on Friday with Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak. On the agenda was military cooperation between the two countries.
"We discussed the issue of cooperation in the direct military dimension, in other words within the framework of the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade, and we talked about the possibilities when it comes to increasing its use both in exercises and in joint operations," Soloch told PAP.
The two diplomats also raised the subject of defence industry cooperation in the area of modernising equipment and discussed relations between Ukraine, NATO and the European Union.
"We talked in the broad context about the policy of bringing Ukraine closer to NATO and the will they have manifested to achieve membership of the Alliance and the programmes offered by the European Union, especially since at the moment cooperation is being built between the EU and NATO," Paweł Soloch underscored.
Minister Poltorak announced after the talks that Kiev values the support which - he noted - it has received from Poland since the first day of Russian aggression.
"Since the first day of Russian aggression against Ukraine, Poland has shown our country political and material-technical aid," Poltorak wrote on Facebook.
The Ukrainian minister stated that he had talked to Soloch about the security situation in the zone of operations against pro-Russian separatists in Donbas as well as reform of the Ukrainian army. "I am satisfied that we have a common approach to further cooperation and joint projects," Poltorak stressed.
Friday was the second and final day of Paweł Soloch's trip to Ukraine. On Thursday, he met Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Oleksandr Turchynov. After the talks with Turchninov, the pair stated that the main threat to relations between the two countries was Russia's aggressive policy.
Source: PAP