Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak held the second meeting of the working group № 9 focused on the implementation of the ninth clause of the Ukrainian Peace Formula "Preventing escalation and repetition of aggression".
Andriy Yermak noted that the number of participants had more than doubled since the inaugural meeting of the working group. The second meeting was attended by ambassadors and diplomatic representatives of 43 countries (in person and online), including representatives of the Global South, as well as foreign and Ukrainian experts.
The working group on the ninth point of the Peace Formula has been joined by: Australia, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Greece, Georgia, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the USA, Türkiye, Finland, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Chile, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, as well as the European Union. Additionally, representatives from the expert circles of several countries have been involved.
"Clause nine of the Peace Formula is about preventing the escalation of war and the repetition of aggression. This is much broader than security commitments. We want our Formula to become global: to give any other country the opportunity to use our experience, learn from our lessons, use our tools and ready-made solutions," said the Head of the Presidential Office.
He reminded the audience that since the previous meeting, more than 30 countries had joined the G7 Joint Declaration on security commitments for our country, five draft bilateral documents had been submitted to Ukraine for consideration, eight bilateral consultations had been launched, and more than 15 countries had expressed readiness to start bilateral negotiations shortly.
"As part of our joint work, we have to answer the question of how to convey a clear message to a potential aggressor and make it think twice before violating international law. The price of threats must be too high, the price of aggression must be unbearable, and responsibility must be inevitable," emphasized Andriy Yermak.
The Head of the President's Office noted substantial progress in expanding the circle of participants, geographical representation, development of separate thematic documents and engagement of experts, and expressed hope that the final list of co-chairs of the working group would be agreed upon in the near future. In this format, the group will continue its active work both after the next meeting of national security advisers, which will take place in Davos in a few days, and after the Global Peace Summit.
"With each meeting, we are getting closer to the Global Peace Summit. The Peace Formula has become an international peace platform and structure for the restoration of international law and the multilateral security system. Just, lasting and sustainable peace is only possible when we work together," he emphasized.
Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, told the meeting participants that the philosophy and conceptual framework of the working group № 9 had already been developed, and that representatives of the countries involved, including new members of the group, could submit their proposals.
"It is very important to work on an effective security system and efficient tools that could be used in the security commitments mechanism," said Ihor Zhovkva.
He also noted that the activities of this group would go far beyond the issue of purely security commitments for Ukraine.
"Today, there is not a single country in the world that has not been affected by the Russian war. Everyone feels its negative consequences. That is why we have come together in such a representative quantity around the key point of the Ukrainian Peace Formula, which aims not only to speed up Ukraine's victory and end the war, but also to prevent similar aggressions from happening in the future anywhere else in the world," said Ihor Zhovkva.
The Deputy Head of the Presidential Office called for further expansion of the group's circle of participants: "We invite all states that respect international law and the UN Charter, and this is today the majority of countries in the democratic world, to participate in the work on this item. Of course, there is no place among them for Russia, which violates every single international norm possible."
During the meeting, the participants discussed priorities for further work, certain organizational issues and expectations from the next meeting of national security advisers and diplomatic advisers to the heads of state in Davos. After the inaugural Global Peace Summit, a thematic international event on preventing the escalation of war and the repetition of aggression will be held in one of the countries co-chairing the working group on clause nine. This event will utilize the developments of this working group.