NATO ENSEC COE received Ukraine letter of intent to join as a partner nation

On the 8^th of December the Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Mining Ihor Nasalyk met the Lithuanian Vice-Minister of National Defense Vytautas Umbrasas to deliver a letter of intent which signifies the Ukrainian wish to join the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence as a partner nation.

This decision was made after a long and successful partnership between the Centre, the National Power Company "UKRENERGO" and the National institute for Strategic Studies of Ukraine (NISS). The most recent example of this partnership was the Advanced Training Course and Table-Top Exercise "Coherent Resilience 2017" conducted in Ukraine in October, by the NATO ENSEC COE, NISS and the Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining of Ukraine. The training course was aimed at understanding and addressing the issues of communication and response of the Ukrainian Institutions towards energy crises, critical infrastructure attacks and cyber threats. The course gathered a hundred participating experts and representatives from both Ukrainian and NATO member organizations - military, governmental, academic and industry.

The NATO ENSEC COE welcomes the Ukrainian initiative for working together, which became especially important after the latest military conflict between Ukraine and Russia that started in 2014. With the addition of Ukraine as a partner, the benefit will be mutual, with the expertise that the Centre can provide and the extensive institutional experience of varying energy security related problems that Ukrainian experts can share.