The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba summed up the results of the inaugural summit of the Crimean Platform chaired by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and told about five priority areas of its further work, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported.
“A historic event took place in Kyiv this week. 46 states and international organizations have confirmed that they do not recognize and will never recognize the Russian occupation of Crimea and have made a number of commitments set out in the Crimean Platform Declaration,” the minister said.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy noted that the Crimean platform is an important element of the recently adopted Foreign Policy Strategy, which provides for the creation of Ukraine’s alliances of friendly countries to strengthen security. He recalled two other formats Ukraine had created last year: the Lublin Triangle with Poland and Lithuania, the Associated Trio with Georgia and Moldova.
Dmytro Kuleba stressed that the inaugural Summit of the Crimean Platform “is not the end, but the beginning of great work” on the way to the deoccupation of Crimea. The work of the Crimean platform will continue in 5 main areas:
- strengthening the international policy of non-recognition of the attempt to annex Crimea
- application of restrictive measures (sanctions)
- combating human rights violations
- guaranteeing safety and freedom of navigation
- overcoming the economic and environmental consequences of the occupation
The Minister paid special attention to the Declaration of the Crimean Platform, which was supported by all member states of the summit and the European Union. The document remains open until accession, and Ukraine will actively work to attract new participants to the Crimean platform.
“This is the strongest international document on Crimea, adopted at the international level since 2014,” the minister said.
The Foreign Minister of Ukraine stressed that the commitments of the countries set out in the document will be translated into concrete actions, measures and initiatives.
“Seven years after the beginning of the Russian aggression and the illegal occupation of Crimea, we have corrected a historical mistake. We go from victim status to lifeguard status. This is the philosophy of the Foreign Policy Strategy, the tone of which is set by President Zelensky,” Dmytro Kuleba summed up.