Ukraine and neighbouring EU countries establish new security format

KIEV: Ukraine and several EU countries have established the so-called Kiev Initiative to strengthen their regional cooperation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

He named neighbours Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as participants and said on Monday that the door was open to other countries to join the format.

Zelensky described it as "a very promising line of our work within the Euro-Atlantic alignment" but provided few details, saying only that security issues would be the focus of their collaboration, dpa news agency reported.

In his video address, the President also touched on the second annual Crimea Platform, a summit that will be held online on Tuesday and feature speeches by the leaders of Germany, Japan, Canada and NATO.

In total, more than 50 participants from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa have been announced. The Crimea Platform, launched last year, is used by Kiev to mobilise support for the return of the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine.

The strategically important Black Sea territory was annexed by Russia in 2014 but continues to be part of Ukraine under international law. (IANS)

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