On 25 October 2019, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk visited the European Defence Agency for talks with Chief Executive Jorge Domecq on current and future opportunities for cooperation.



It was the first encounter between Mr Domecq and Minister Zagorodnyuk who was appointed in August this year. Discussions mainly focused on the state of play of Ukraine’s participation in EDA projects and activities under the Administrative Arrangement (AA) signed in December 2015, which identifies four main areas for initial cooperation: Single European Sky, Standardization, Training, Logistics.



Minister Zagorodnyuk and Mr Domecq took stock of the good progress made so far in the implementation of the AA and exchanged views on ways to further enhance and facilitate Ukraine’s involvement in EDA projects and activities within the four areas.



“We look forward to pursuing our cooperation with Minister Zagorodnyuk and his team building on what has already been achieved since the Administrative Agreement was signed in 2015”, Mr Domecq commented.



Minister Zagorodnyuk expressed his gratitude for the support of Ukraine and informed the Chief Executive about the restart of the political establishment in Ukraine and that the President, the Parliament and the Government have already taken practical steps to radically accelerate reforms in Ukraine. The Minister emphasised that the MOD of Ukraine is focusing on achieving practical results on the reforms of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and gave notice on the main tasks of the Ministry of Defence in the short term.



The Minister stressed his interest in increasing practical cooperation between the MOD of Ukraine and EDA, in accordance with the Administrative Arrangement signed in 2015. He further informed about Ukraine's aspiration to take part in PESCO projects with EU Member states when a decision about participation of third States is made.



Minister Zagorodnyuk in his visit to EDA was accompanied by Deputy Minister of Defence Ms. Alina Frolova and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Yehor Bozhok.