Ukraine has had an extremely successful year in the field of European and Euro-Atlantic integration and will continue the strategic course set and enshrined in the Constitution for full membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a speech at a video conference of heads of foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine, which began in Kyiv.
"Our common choice is to be part of a democratic world and to uphold high democratic standards in Ukraine. And in the international arena, we must be active promoters of democratic values and strengthen our position as an actor, namely actor, not an object, of geopolitical relations," the Head of State stressed.
He reminded that on the modern geopolitical map of the world Ukraine has a strategically important place, where on the one side there is a free and human-centered world, where democratic values, freedom and security prevail, and on the other side there is a part of the world moving towards domination over human and human freedom. According to the President, the Ukrainian state has long determined the direction of its movement.
"Ukraine's strategic course is defined and enshrined in the Constitution - the acquisition of full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and NATO. I think we had an extremely successful year in the field of European and Euro-Atlantic integration," Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated.
The President noted that in relations with the EU, Ukraine needed new goals that would help move closer to the key strategic goal - to get a clear prospect of EU membership. The 22nd Ukraine-EU Summit was a successful ground for this.
"Following the Summit, we managed to set new ambitious goals in our relations, which we will work on together with the current composition of the EU institutions," the President said.
According to him, it is primarily a matter of updating the Association Agreement and conducting a joint assessment in 2021 of the achievement of its goals, which should be the driving force behind the process of updating the document.
"Our goal is to use the process of updating the Agreement for maximum integration of Ukraine into the EU internal market," the President stressed.
He noted that the key task in the field of trade for the next two years is to conclude an agreement with the EU on "industrial visa-free regime", in the field of sectoral integration - Ukraine's involvement in the European Green Course, and the conclusion of the Common Aviation Area Agreement, which was planned to be signed early next year. The state also intends to continue its efforts to integrate the energy markets of Ukraine and the EU and bring Ukraine as close as possible to the EU Digital Single Market.
"All these tasks are not only for our Representative to the EU. This is a task for every ambassador in the EU member states and candidate countries," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
According to the President, our efforts in relations with the North Atlantic Alliance were also successful, as Ukraine was invited to join the NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partnership. So now the task for the Ukrainian diplomatic service is to make the most of the political, security and military potential of this format, he said.
"And this task is not only for the future Head of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO, and not only for the ambassadors in NATO member states. Ambassadors to Georgia, Jordan, Australia, Finland, and Sweden, countries that already use this format successfully, should also do their part of the job. As for the activities of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO, I want to see Ukrainian diplomats and military not only at the headquarters in Brussels, but also in all structures of NATO's partnership," the President concluded.
In his opinion, only in this case there is a chance to resume the meetings of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at a high level or to receive a decision of the Alliance to invite our country to the Membership Action Plan.