In Washington, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held his first meeting in the five-party format with the leaders of NATO’s Indo-Pacific partner states: President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol, Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Japan Christopher Luxon and Fumio Kishida, and Deputy Prime Minister – Minister for Defense of Australia Richard Marles.
"This format of cooperation is new for us. With each of your countries, we have special relations and specific areas of cooperation. But today, together, we can discuss global issues of common interest," noted the President of Ukraine.
The Head of State thanked the partners for their unwavering solidarity and support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, as well as for the participation of these countries in the first Peace Summit. During the meeting, they discussed the accession of other Indo-Pacific countries to the Joint Communiqué.
In light of Russia's constant attacks on civilian infrastructure and civilians, the President emphasized that Ukraine urgently needs to bolster its air defenses with air defense and electronic warfare systems.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also thanked Australia and New Zealand for their announced defense packages. In particular, Australia allocated $170 million, which is the largest amount of assistance from this country since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Head of State invited the Republic of Korea, Australia, and New Zealand to join the G7 Vilnius Declaration of Support for Ukraine and to consider the possibility of concluding bilateral security agreements with our country. He also thanked Japan for the recent signing of the relevant document.
The leaders discussed the rapidly changing situation in the Indo-Pacific region, which requires unity on security issues, and condemned the recent comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between Russia and North Korea.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine is interested in closer cooperation with regional organizations such as ASEAN, the Pacific Islands Forum, and joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The leaders agreed to work on holding meetings in the Ukraine + Indo-Pacific Four (IP4) format on a regular basis.
