U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Ukraine has “no greater friend than the United States” in its struggle against “Russian aggression.”
Mr. Pompeo made the remark after meeting with the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Washington on November 16.
The secretary of state said the “United States will never accept Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea,” and that Washington will impose “consequences until Russia returns control of the Black Sea peninsula to Ukraine.”
The two diplomats met on the 10th anniversary of the declaration of a strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States.
[The two leaders met, as Mr. Pompeo said, “to breathe new life into the U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Commission and to reaffirm our unwavering support for a democratic Ukraine.” Mr. Klimkin noted that “The commission unites a number of ministers and governmental agencies on both sides – such as defense, commerce, energy, foreign affairs – that work together to advance our broad and intensive agenda, and the shared goals enumerated in the charter.” The text of the Joint Statement on U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership appears on page 3.]Secretary Pompeo said he and Minister Klimkin made progress in several areas during their talks, including on security and countering Russian aggression, rule of law and humanitarian issues, as well as economic and energy security.
Mr. Pompeo also noted the two discussed joint efforts to stop the Nord Stream 2 project that, he said, “undermines Ukraine’s economic and strategic security and risks further compromising the sovereignty of European nations that depend on Russian gas.”
Nord Stream 2 is a controversial project that would expand the current Nord Stream pipeline, which passes along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to deliver Russian gas to Germany.
The United States, Poland, the Baltic states and several other EU countries have expressed concern about Nord Stream 2 – which avoids existing gas pipelines through Ukraine – and the added leverage on energy security it could give Moscow.
Mr. Klimkin said the United States and Ukraine “stand shoulder to shoulder in countering Russian aggression.” He said such aggression takes many forms, both the war in Crimea and parts of Donbas in Ukraine, and in Russian efforts to undermine democratic institutions in the United States and Europe.
The Ukrainian foreign affairs minister also said Kyiv was grateful for U.S. support in strengthening Ukraine’s defense capabilities, “both through training of our military and through providing defense equipment.”
With reporting by AFP.
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