Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the ambassador for coming to this meeting. He is most welcome and we appreciate him attending. I thank him for his role in relaying to the Russian Government in recent weeks the feelings and concerns of the Irish people regarding the proposed naval exercise in waters inside the Irish exclusive economic zone, EEZ. We appreciate the way in which that exercise has been moved away from our shores.

I am also glad the ambassador is here to hear from us as the representatives of the Irish people - and the members on this committee include a sample of those from all parties and none - about our fears and concerns and those of the people we represent regarding the accumulation of Russian forces on the border of Ukraine. I remind the ambassador that Ireland's neighbour, the UK, decided in recent years to leave the EU. In the context of the chequered history of our relationship with that country and our aspiration to unite our island, we did not agree with that decision and we did not like it. We could not understand it, and we still find it hard to do so. The UK's decision threatened Ireland financially and had grave implications for our trade with it and with other European partners. It even had the potential to contradict the Good Friday Agreement. The protocol included in the withdrawal agreement is now being further debated and clarified by the UK and, on our behalf, the EU. It is being done through negotiation because we and the other EU member states accept that the UK is a sovereign nation. Neither we nor the wider EU sought to negotiate by amassing troops on the UK's borders.

My questions, then, are simple. I heard and noted what the ambassador said and the justification he believes is necessary as a result of the growth of NATO. Does Russia accept that Ukraine is an independent and sovereign state? Equally, did not the NATO-Russia Founding Act signed in 1997 pledge "respect [...] [for] the inherent right [of all states] to choose the means to ensure their own security"? Andrei Kozyrev, who after the collapse of the Soviet Union was the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation until 1996, recently commented that: “The United States and NATO were on the right side of history by admitting new democracies to the Alliance and being willing to find an accommodation with Russia. It was Moscow that returned to its antagonism toward NATO." Would the ambassador agree with that analysis?

To reiterate my three questions, does the ambassador accept that Ukraine is an independent sovereign state; does he accept as well that, as a sovereign state, it is, of course, entitled, as it should be and as the EU and we believe it to be, to choose its own means to ensure its own security; and, does he agree with the comment made by Andrei Kozyrev about antagonism towards NATO?