Ukraine has announced that it will join the NATO Cyber Defense Cooperation Center (CCDCOE). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine writes about this on Twitter.
Attached to the post is a photo showing the Ukrainian flag hoisted alongside the flags of other European countries near the CCDCOE headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expressed its gratitude to the NATO countries for the offer to join the cooperation center and the Estonian authorities “for their support and assistance on the way to NATO CCDCOE”. According to RBC, on the organization’s website Ukraine is still listed among the CCDCOE’s partner countries.
The NATO Cyber Center was established in 2008 to expand “information sharing and cooperation” between alliance members and partners. In particular, the CCDCOE conducts cybersecurity exercises and prepares instructions “for activities in this area”.
In 2021, Ukraine applied to join the NATO cybercentre, but Hungary blocked Ukraine’s application, according to the European publication Pravda.
On May 15, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2023, called for a positive decision on Ukraine’s application to join NATO at the alliance’s July summit.
“It’s time <…> Zelensky said that if he makes a positive decision on NATO membership, it should be done at the alliance’s summit in July.
Earlier, The Washington Post wrote that at the summit to be held in Vilnius in July, NATO countries decided not to send invitations to Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Alliance.
According to the publication, Eastern European countries would like to see concrete steps, including specific dates, for Ukraine to join the alliance. At the same time, the United States and some Western European countries advocate only small steps in this direction.
Soon, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed the opinion that at the summit to be held in Vilnius on 11-12 July, the countries of the organization will declare their support for Ukraine’s entry into the alliance.
At the same time, the head of the Verkhovna Rada’s permanent delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Yegor Chernev, expressed the opinion that Ukraine may receive a NATO invitation on certain dates, not in Vilnius, but at the summit to be held in Washington in 2024. in 2023
“An invitation with specific dates is, in my opinion, completely unrealistic at this particular summit. But hopefully the next one will be in Washington, that’s going to be the number one question,” he said.
At the same time, Chernev hopes that Kiev can get “security guarantees” in Vilnius. “Security guarantees until we become full-fledged members of NATO. “I think that’s the maximum we can get at the summit in Vilnius today,” he said.
According to him, Kiev wants to get “assurance” from Western countries to join NATO after the end of the armed conflict.