After the United States, Japan, Britain and Canada, Ukraine has started negotiations on security guarantees with France

A Ukrainian negotiating team headed by Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Ihor Zhovkva has begun the first round of talks with France on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine.

Source. This was reported on the official website of the President of Ukraine.

"On behalf of the President of Ukraine and the Head of the Office of the President, the first round of negotiations with the French Republic on the conclusion of a bilateral agreement on security guarantees, as provided for in the Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine, has begun today," the statement reads.

The negotiating team also included Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Roman Mashovets and First Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Pavliuk.

The report emphasizes that Ukraine has already started bilateral talks with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan.

France has become the fifth country with which relevant negotiations on security guarantees have been launched.

"It is difficult to overestimate the importance of bilateral security talks with France as a founding member of the European Union and NATO. We constantly feel France's support both in bringing Ukraine's victory closer and on the path of our country's European and Euro-Atlantic integration," Zhovkva said.

"Assistance in the development of the military-industrial complex and economic recovery of Ukraine is also an integral part of security guarantees. An important element of deterring aggression should also be powerful sanctions and the inevitability of confiscation of the aggressor country's assets," the statement said.

Following the talks, the parties agreed on a procedure for coordination on security guarantees in the near future, as well as a plan for further bilateral negotiations.