NATO PA Standing Committee advocates for increased support for Ukraine

The Chairman of the Estonian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Marko Šorin took part in the sitting of the NATO PA Standing Committee in Athens, Greece. The focus was on Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and the adaptation of the organisation to the changed security environment.

“The sitting of the Standing Committee strongly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the mass-scale execution of civilians during the war, which constitutes a brutal violation of human rights,” Šorin said. 

“The attendees of the sitting emphasised that Russia’s war of choice in Ukraine has drastically changed the security environment in Europe and the whole world. We concluded that we need to enhance our cooperation to cement the key role of NATO in defending the rules-based order,” Šorin reported. He added that the need to transform the systematic cooperation between NATO member states had also been discussed to improve the response to the new security reality. Member states are already increasing their defence expenditures and investments dramatically this year. We must absolutely not forget the core values of NATO and must continue strengthening both the eastern and the southern flanks.

The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk and the Head of the Ukrainian delegation Yegor Chernev outlined the state of the country in war and thanked the member states for the military and humanitarian aid that has already been provided. They concluded that the economic sanctions on Russia are having an impact but should be much stricter still. They also expressed their hope to receive increasing military aid from the allies in the near future because the situation with weapons and defence equipment in the Ukrainian army is turning critical.

The Athens Sitting of the NATO PA also reviewed the reports and political recommendations of the Committee. Because of the war, the NATO PA Spring Session will take place in Vilnius in May. The initial plan had been to hold the 2022 Spring Session in Kyiv. The NATO PA Annual Session will take place in Madrid in November.

NATO PA web page.

Source: Parliament of Estonia