Rada ratifies agreement on establishing NATO's Office in Ukraine

The agreement formalizes the diplomatic status of the NATO Office in Ukraine, which is being formed on the basis of the NATO Liaison Office and the NATO Information and Documentation Center in Ukraine. As an explanatory note to the law reads, the Office will favor intensification and extension of the Ukraine's participation in all the events on cooperation between Ukraine and NATO, meant to present a consultative aid to state agencies of Ukraine over cooperation with the respective NATO agencies. Klimkin during the presentation of the given bill at Verkhovna Rada's plenary session on February 3 said that the NATO Office in Ukraine would "be in fact an Embassy of NATO in Ukraine." "This office would be in fact a full-fledged embassy. The personnel will make a use of all privileges of the Venice Commission. All projects, which now work within NATO cooperation, will be coordinated via this office," the minister said.