У
спільній Заяві парламентарії двох країн наголосили на наявності значних
викликів в Чорноморському регіоні, які потребують скоординованих дій на
регіональному рівні обох країн.

Парламентарії
відзначили, що Чорне море має всі можливості бути морем миру та розвитку, що
розширить економічні і торгівельні можливості, а також можливості розвитку для
країн регіону. Чорноморські транзитні маршрути мають великий потенціал для
диверсифікації енергетичних і транспортних маршрутів, що прямують до Європи, і,
отже, зниження енергетичної залежності Європи від Росії.

Українські
та грузинські парламентарії погодилися, що, через агресивну поведінку Росії по
відношенню до її безпосередніх сусідів і триваючі порушення міжнародного права
та міжнародних зобов’язань, Росія є основним дестабілізуючим фактором у
Чорноморському регіоні.

Разом
з тим, актуальним залишається питання про невизнання депутатів Державної Думи
обраних на окупованих територіях як офіційних представників РФ, та накладання
на них персональних санкцій. Рішучим кроком для забезпечення безпеки і
стабільності в Європі буде розглянути можливість щодо розширення військової
присутності країн-членів НАТО на території України з метою забезпечення безпеки
недоторканості і суверенітету української території в умовах посилення
агресивної риторики Кремля та нарощування угруповання збройних сил Росії у
безпосередній близькості до державного кордону України.

Найголовнішим
питанням, яке потребує переконливої підтримки країн-членів НАТО та яке найбільш
ефективно здатне забезпечити безпеку і стабільність в регіоні, залишається
питання підтримки євроатлантичного курсу України в частині що стосується
надання Плану дій щодо членства в НАТО та видимої перспективи вступу до лав
Альянсу.

Парламентарії
закликали Північноатлантичний Альянс продовжувати посилювати свою присутність у
Чорноморському регіоні та поглиблювати свою практичну участь, що стане
передумовою створення безпечного та стабільного Чорноморського регіону, а отже
– розширення євроатлантичної безпеки.

Парламентарії
також висловили сподівання, що, беручи до уваги важливість безпечного та
стабільного Чорноморського регіону для ширшої євроатлантичної безпеки, Альянс
має розглянути можливість розробки всеосяжної чорноморської стратегії, яка б
чітко виражала інтереси НАТО в регіоні та визначала кроки до підвищення його
безпеки.

Парламентарії
відзначили, що найкращою можливістю відобразити бачення Альянсу щодо
Чорноморського регіону буде нова Стратегічна концепція НАТО, яку планується до
прийняття на майбутньому саміті НАТО у 2022 році.
Повний текст спільної Заяви англійською мовою додається.
Joint
Statement of the Parliamentarians of Ukraine and Georgia on the Security
Environment in the Black Sea region



Parliamentarians of Ukraine and Georgia have gathered
in Odessa to discuss the security situation in the Black Sea region within the
NATO-Ukraine Interparliamentary Council (UNIC) and NATO-Georgia Interparliamentary
Council (GNIC) joint meeting.
Parliamentarians identified significant challenges and
opportunities in the Black Sea area, which require coordinated action at the
regional level.
Parliamentarians noted that Black Sea has every
potential of being the sea of peace and development, enhancing the economic,
trade and development opportunities for the countries of the region.

Parliamentarians highlighted that Black Sea transit
routes have great potential to diversify energy and transportation lines
heading to Europe and therefore reduce Europe’s energy dependence on Russia.
Parliamentarians agreed that taking into account
Russia’s aggressive behavior towards its immediate neighbors and continued
violations of international law and of its international obligations, Russia
represents a major destabilizing factor in the Black Sea region.

Parliamentarians condemned the ongoing occupation and
steps towards de-facto annexation of
Georgia’s two indivisible regions – Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South
Ossetia by the Russian Federation, constant violations of the EU-mediated 12
August 2008 Ceasefire Agreement, illegal military build-up and military
exercises, installation of barbed-wire fences and other artificial barriers in
the heart of Georgia’s territory, closure of crossing points along the
occupation line, grave violation of human rights in the occupied territories,
including torture and murder,
restriction of freedom of movement and illegal detention and kidnappings,
ethnic discrimination of Georgians, as well as denying hundreds of thousands of
IDPs and refugees forcefully expelled from Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions as a
result of multiple waves of ethnic cleansing, of the right to return home.
Parliamentarians expressed their concern that Russia’s illegal steps towards
the occupied regions of Georgia not only threaten peace and security in Georgia
but also has negative implications on the security of wider Black Sea region
and the whole Euro-Atlantic area. Parliamentarians highlighted the importance
of advancing in the process of peaceful conflict resolution and of attaining
tangible results in the negotiations within the Geneva International
Discussions, while underscoring the necessity of implementation by Russia of
its international commitments, inter alia
of the EU-mediated 12 August 2008 Ceasefire Agreement to achieve lasting peace
and security in the region. Parliamentarians also stressed that stronger engagement
of international community is essential and thus highlighted the importance of
keeping Georgia and Ukraine high on international agenda.

Russia, committing armed aggression against Georgia
and occupying part of its sovereign territory, had shown its aggressive and
hypocritical nature. Only decisive action of Georgian people together with
international community involvement could stop Russian aggression. That was made clear that Russia is relentless in
pursuing its own neo-imperial ambitions, and Ukraine became the next
object of such ambitions. Since 2014, the
Ukrainian nation, at the cost of great efforts and losses, has countered
Russian aggression in its various forms, from overt warfare to political
provocations at the international level.

Using hybrid methods of influence, Russia has created artificial instability in the southern and eastern
regions of Ukraine and started an armed aggression by regular units of the
armed forces and special services, held an illegal pseudo-referendum and
occupied the Crimean peninsula. During the seven years of occupation, Crimea
has been purposefully degraded from a tourist region into a desert and an
advanced Russian military outpost in the Azov and Black Sea region. Actions
taken by occupational administration have caused humanitarian and ecological
catastrophe. Systematic cases of gross
violations of fundamental human rights, intimidation of local population,
systematic cases of harassment, illegal detention, torture, and murders on
ethnic, religion and political ground have been reported. In addition, Russia violates international law, in
terms of the laws and customs of war by providing policy based on militarization
of occupied peninsula, propaganda of warfare and compulsory conscription of the
local population.
Moscow, through overt armed aggression,
have occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, turning these areas into
war zones and ruins. Such status quo is used as an instrument of direct
pressure on the Ukrainian authorities. Despite Ukraine's repeated attempts to
establish dialogue and promote peace initiatives, Russia persists to commit
gross violations of the UN Charter, violates the ceasefire regime, resulting in
casualties among civilians and Ukrainian AF servicemen. Russian military
command also provides occupation forces with all necessary weapons, ammunition
and military equipment, maintains, forbidden by Minsk arrangements, weapon
systems close to the contact line. At the same time Russian occupational
administration systematically destroys the region's social infrastructure and
industry, and continues to kidnap, torture and murder Ukrainian citizens who
denies to cooperate with the Russian occupation authorities.

Russia's aggressive activities,
under the statement of NATO's influence decrease in the region, are aimed at
gaining full dominance over the Black and Azov Seas. Such actions, taken by
Kremlin will make this area a potential zone of instability, increase the risk
of military incidents at sea and in the air, limit the freedom of navigation in
violation of existing rules of international maritime law.
Russia's illegal actions against Ukraine could lead to
the loss of Ukraine’s state control over the exclusive maritime zone, the
annexation of its sovereign waters, and naval blockade in order to destroy
country's economy.

The build-up of Russian forces along Ukraine's
borders, the development of military infrastructure and the accumulation of
significant reserves of weapon and military equipment pose a threat of further expansion of armed aggression against Ukraine
and dramatically raise the security risks for the whole Europe.

Taking into consideration all the above-mentioned,
Parliamentarians agreed that greater NATO involvement by in ensuring the
security in the Black Sea region is of crucial importance. Parliamentarians
noted that NATO should further engage aspirant countries- Georgia and Ukraine
in its efforts towards strengthening Black Sea security, which is an
indivisible part of Euro-Atlantic security.

Parliamentarians underlined the importance of
Georgia’s and Ukraine’s engagement in the NATO’s efforts towards strengthening
Black Sea security. They also noted the fruitful existing cooperation with
Georgia and Ukraine on Black Sea security whereby these partner states
participate in the dedicated strategic discussions with the Alliance and share
information and analysis of the current situation in the region with Allies on
a regular basis. Moreover, aspirant Georgia and Ukraine are cooperating with
the Alliance on concrete practical cooperation
initiatives aimed at strengthening the Black Sea security based on 2018 Summit,
2019 and 2020 Foreign Ministerial decisions.
In this context, Parliamentarians highlighted the
importance to increase the intelligence exchange and real-time radar data
sharing with special focus on illegal, hostile maritime activities in Abkhazian
segment of Georgia's Black Sea coast, Ukraine's Black Sea and Sea
of Azov coast as well as information concerning illegal actions on the
temporary occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Gross
interest presents any information towards threatening activity of Russian armed
forces’ grouping augmentation close to Ukrainian state border, which creates
preconditions to further armed aggression expansion.
In addition,
in order to reduce the level of existing threats from the Russian Federation in
the Azov-Black Sea region and minimize their impact on Ukraine, it is necessary
to initiate updated formats of cooperation between the Black Sea region
countries. In the framework of cooperation with NATO, there is also a strong
necessity of strengthening the permanent military presence of Allied forces in
the Black Sea region, including by increasing the scale and intensity of joint
exercises, conducting patrols of Ukrainian territorial waters by joint NATO and
Ukrainian shipping groups, control and ensure the freedom of navigation at sea.
Besides that, single mechanism for rapid response to violations of
international maritime law should be established.

Russia's
attempts to legitimize the previously occupied territories remain an important
issue. Such Russian actions need to be implicitly condemned by all members of
the international community. We call on parliamentarians to hold the officials
of NATO member-states personally responsible for illegal visits to the occupied
territories and for cooperating with representatives of the occupation
administrations. At the same time, there is a relevant issue of non-recognition
of deputies of the State Duma, elected in the occupied territories as official
representatives of the Russian Federation and imposition of personal sanctions
against them. The combination of these actions will demonstrate the
determination of Allies to counter Russian aggression.

Another
decisive step to ensure security and stability in Europe will be consideration
of the possibility to expand the NATO military presence towards the territory
of Ukraine. Positive decision in this context will certainly increase the
security of the inviolability and sovereignty of Ukrainian territory in the
face of intensifying Kremlin aggressive rhetoric and Russian armed forces
aggravation around Ukrainian borders.

The most
important issue, which needs the convincing support of NATO member states and
which shall be the most effective measure in ensuring security and stability in
the region, remains the issue of supporting Georgia’s and Ukraine's
Euro-Atlantic course in terms of providing a Membership Action Plan and a
visible prospect of joining the Alliance.

Parliamentarians call on NATO to further enhance its
presence in the Black Sea region and deepen its practical engagement, which
will be a precondition of safe, secure and stable Black Sea region and
therefore, of wider Euro-Atlantic
security.
With this in
view, Parliamentarians emphasized the importance of strengthened deterrence and defense in the Black Sea region to
effectively counter Russia’s revanchist posture aimed at reshaping the
geopolitical balance of the region. Thus, looking into the lessons learnt from the
Enhanced Forward Presence would be useful and applicable to NATO cooperation
with like-minded democracies in the Black Sea.
Parliamentarians expressed hope that, taking into
account the importance of the secure and stable Black Sea region for the wider
Euro-Atlantic security, NATO should consider a possibility of elaborating a
comprehensive Black Sea strategy, which would state clearly the interests of
NATO in the region and steps towards enhancing its security.
Parliamentarians noted that the best opportunity to
reflect the vision of the Alliance regarding the Black Sea region will be a new
Strategic Concept of NATO, scheduled to be adopted at the future NATO Summit in
2022.