Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze met with President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Rasa Juknevičienė in Kyiv.

The parties discussed a wide range of issues related to Ukraine's interaction with the NATO. In particular, they focused on the parliamentary dimension of cooperation and the role of the Government of Ukraine in the preparation and holding of the spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in 2020, which will be held in Kyiv for the first time. "We highly appreciate readiness of Ukraine to host the spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in 2020. I believe the event will be held at the highest standard", said Rasa Juknevičienė. "Today, not only Ukraine needs NATO, but the Alliance needs Ukraine."

A number of issues of the political and practical nature were also tackled. Ukraine, together with the Alliance, will work to restore a high-level political dialogue in the format of the Ukraine-NATO Commission, which is currently blocked by the Hungarian side. "The issue of bilateral format, unfortunately, is used by the Hungarians on the NATO multinational platform, where the main principle of interaction is the consensus. To ensure a constructive dialogue with Hungary for Ukraine the participation of 28 other NATO members is extremely important in this matter, which, of course, will be of greater importance in building a constructive dialogue with Hungary on the implementation of the language article of the Law of Ukraine "On Education", stressed Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.

The Vice Prime Minister also spoke about the progress of reforms in Ukraine, in particular, about approving the Law "On National Security of Ukraine" and a number of other important bills. "In my opinion, the decisive factor is the joint work of the Government, the Parliament and the President on the promotion of the nationwide objective - membership in the EU and NATO - at the state level, in legislation, inter alia, in the Constitution of Ukraine. We expect the law on the corresponding amendments to the Constitution to be adopted already at the end of this year", accentuated Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.

"We are ready to share our experience in gaining membership in the Alliance. Almost 11 years after the submission of the application it took to Lithuania to become a NATO member", said Rasa Juknevičienė. (Lithuania is a NATO member since March 29, 2004).

As a separate issue, the parties touched upon joint counteraction to the challenges and threats posed by Russia in the context of the preparation and conduct of elections in Ukraine. In particular, the top officials of the two states talked about the need to strengthen the cyber security and cyber defense system in Ukraine, exchange of experience in countering hybrid threats and information attacks.