On August 24, First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzhaparova held a video meeting with Wendy Morton, Deputy Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom for the European Neighborhood and America.

Emine Dzhaparova expressed gratitude to the United Kingdom for support of the Crimea Platform, the British delegation's participation in its inaugural summit on August 23, and the United Kingdom's readiness to continue cooperation on the platform's security and human rights tracks.

The situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea, short and long-term perspectives of cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom within the Crimea Platform were in the focus of the talks. 

"The main goal of the Crimea Platform is to unite the efforts and capabilities of member states governments, parliaments as well as the international organizations, think tanks and experts in order to reveal the real situation on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula for the international community", - said Emine Dzhaparova.

She underscored that only coordinated work of the Crimean platform at all three levels - governmental, parliamentary and expert - will provide keeping the topic of the Crimean peninsula deoccupation on the international agenda and strengthening joint political and diplomatic efforts to restore Ukraine's territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.

Emine Dzhaparova informed that the intergovernmental level of the Crimean Platform to act in the form of consultations of foreign ministers and coordination meetings of the specialized working groups on the priority dimensions: non-recognition policy, sanctions, security and freedom of navigation, protection of human rights and international humanitarian law, environmental and economic consequences of the Russian occupation of Crimea. She reported about the planned annual forum on the security issues in the wider Black Sea region and beyond.

Emine Dzhaparova stressed the importance of supporting joint initiatives on the de-occupation of Crimea, security in the Black and Azov Seas, and reintegration of Donbass. She appreciated the recent passage of the “Defender” through Ukraine's territorial waters in the Black Sea as an important geopolitical signal to the world in support of Ukraine's territorial integrity.

For her part, Wendy Morton noted Ukraine's continued support in the context of countering Russian aggression and readiness for further cooperation both within the framework of the Crimean Platform and for the implementation of mutually beneficial projects.

The interlocutors also discussed issues of cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom within the international organizations.