KYIV, July 27 – Ukraine will continue military cooperation with Macedonia, even though it is willing «to consider» halting arms sales to the troubled Balkans nation, a foreign ministry official said Thursday.
U.S National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in Kyiv Wednesday that Ukrainian officials promised to halt weapons sales, which the United States fears could further stoke the conflict between ethnic Albanian rebels and the government.
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But Foreign Ministry spokesman Serhiy Borodenkov said that stopping weapons sales would not mean the end of military support for Macedonia.
«It doesn’t mean that Ukraine halts military and technical cooperation with Macedonia, which started in 1999 according to bilateral agreement on military cooperation with the country’s legal government,» Serhiy Borodenkov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. He said Ukraine «was willing to consider» halting weapons supplies.
He wouldn’t specify what kind of military support could be included under the term «military cooperation.»
Ukraine is one of the main weapons suppliers to the Macedonian government, which has been battling ethnic Albanian rebels since February.
In recent months, Macedonia has bought eight Ukrainian Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters along with four Su-25 aircraft, nearly doubling its air force, and there have been talks on Ukrainian construction of a technical support base to repair the aircraft.
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