Ukraine and the Czech Republic have made significant progress in drafting a bilateral security agreement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office announced on their Telegram channel yesterday.
The Czech delegation in Kyiv was led by David Konecky, senior director of the Foreign Ministry’s security and multilateral section. Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced last week that the two countries would sign the agreement at the European Political Community summit in London on 18 July.
The president’s office did not give details of the agreement. They said the next round of talks with the Czech side on signing the agreement was organised by the deputy head of the presidential office, Ihor Zhovkva. “The parties noted significant progress in the preparation of the draft of the future agreement and also agreed on further steps to finalise it so that the leaders of the states could sign the document in the near future,” the Ukrainian statement said.
Fiala said on Monday that the security agreement with Ukraine also has symbolic importance, which is significant in international relations. Earlier, Fiala wrote on social media that he and Zelenskiy had agreed that the two sides would complete negotiations on the text of the agreement before the NATO summit in Washington in the second week of July.
Ukraine, now in its third year of resisting the Russian military invasion, has so far concluded two dozen bilateral security agreements with various countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy, with more planned. Last week, Ukraine signed an agreement with the European Union promising continued military and other assistance to Kyiv.
