Greek FinMin Venizelos in Brussels NATO Meeting

Greek government Vice President and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos participated earlier today in the meeting of NATO member-states’ Foreign Ministers. The proceedings of the meeting began with a NATO-Ukraine Council and continued with the North Atlantic Council, while on the sidelines, Venizelos has scheduled a meeting with his Albanian counterpart, Ditmir Bushati.

According to a NATO announcement, the Ministers held talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who participated in the meeting via video link from Kiev. They discussed the challenging developments in and around Ukraine, and reviewed progress made since the last meeting at the Wales Summit in September. The Ministers declared that the trust funds and projects on command, control, communications and computers, logistics and standardization, cyber defense, military career transition and medical rehabilitation are operational. A fifth trust fund to help rehabilitate wounded soldiers has also recently been set up. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the trust funds “are a concrete signal of NATO’s support. They will help make Ukraine’s defense forces more modern, more transparent and more effective. And they will help some of those affected by the conflict.”

The Secretary General also stressed that “in the face of Russia’s continued and deliberate destabilization of Ukraine, NATO will continue to show firm political support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.” Stoltenberg reaffirmed NATO’s support for a political settlement over the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. “The Minsk agreements remain a framework which could pave the way for a peaceful solution,” he said, adding that “Ukraine has made genuine efforts to respect its commitments. But Russia and the Russian-backed separatists have not. We call on Russia to honor its obligations. This includes withdrawing its forces and military equipment from Ukrainian territory and across the Ukrainian border.” The Ministers further condemned Russia’s military build-up in Crimea and expressed concern over its stated plans for further military build-up in the Black Sea. Finally, the Secretary General congratulated Ukraine on the success of November’s elections, saying that “they confirmed Ukraine’s choice for democracy, unity and European integration.”

In addition, the NATO Foreign Ministers announced that an interim Spearhead Force would be operational early next year to improve the Alliance’s readiness and agreed to maintain a continuous NATO presence in the eastern part of the Alliance through next year. “We are going to implement the Readiness Action Plan on time and in full,” said Stoltenberg.

Tomorrow, the Greek Foreign Minister will participate in the meeting of the coalition of countries against the “Islamic State,” also taking place in Brussels.