“Ukraine must become the 33rd member of the NATO alliance – this is our strategic goal,” said Oksana Markarova, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States, during a meeting with companies of the European Business Association and Global Business for Ukraine.
Participants discussed Ukraine’s diplomatic efforts on the international stage, as well as insights and results of three key recent global events – the Global Peace Summit, the G7 Summit, and the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin.
NATO membership, security guarantees, sanctions, confiscation of Russian assets – these tasks are a priority for Ms. Markarova and her team. Real security guarantees for Ukraine can lead to an impetus for economic development and an influx of investments. The way business has shown itself in this war is a real miracle and a demonstration of incredible resilience. Businesses pay taxes, create jobs, and have real plans and actions for reconstruction. Ms. Markarova called on businesses, especially international ones, to also strengthen their voice in the context of security issues. After all, this is the key to a sustainable business climate and the reconstruction of the country.
According to Ms. Markarova, a window of opportunity is opening up for Ukraine again – we are getting more weapons, our allies have more political will, and sanctions are being strengthened to reduce Russia’s capabilities and end the war on Ukraine’s terms.
The peace formula should be driven by Ukraine, so the inaugural Peace Summit is very important in this context, as is the enormous support demonstrated by Ukraine’s allies. At the G7 Summit, an important decision was made to allocate future revenues from frozen US assets to Ukraine, which will be used to provide Ukraine with additional funding in the amount of 50 billion dollars. This decision is very important, given that the election process has already begun in the US and the likelihood of making important decisions before the re-election of a new President and a new Congress is quite low.
Ms. Markarova and her team continue to work on the initiative to confiscate and transfer to Ukraine the entire amount of Russian assets abroad. The United States is a supporter of this idea and has made significant progress in developing the legislative framework for the confiscation of Russian assets. At the same time, ideally, this decision should be supported by all G7 countries.
The Ambassador informed that her team is also working with American businesses to convey information about investment opportunities in Ukraine to international companies. In particular, the Embassy is working with the US State Department on solutions that would make it easier for American entrepreneurs and investors to travel to Ukraine on business. This could be either a change in Ukraine’s security level or assistance with certain insurance solutions to facilitate travel to Ukraine, including for business purposes.
In addition, we discussed with Ms. Markarova the vision of Ukraine’s victory in allied countries, the long-term capabilities of Ukraine and russia, and current issues of economic and energy security. We are sincerely grateful to Oksana Markarova for the meeting and dialogue with the business, as well as for all her efforts to support Ukraine in the US and on the broad international arena.
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