Number of participants increases to 67 as Serbia joins Crimean Platform summit

The summit of the Crimean Platform will be held in Kyiv on August 23, with another country – Serbia – joining the event, bringing the total number of participants up to 67.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, stated this at the opening of the Crimean Platform.

First, the Ukrainian foreign policy department head noted that the number of participants in the Crimea platform had increased to 60 in the previous year.

"It is an honor for me to welcome new participants to this third summit: Bahrain, Serbia, East Timor, the United Arab Emirates, the Danube Commission, UNESCO, and the World Tourism Organization. Our common goal remains the same – to create conditions for the liberation of Crimea from occupation and of all temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine," said the head of the Ukrainian foreign ministry.

Kuleba specified that with the newly named countries and organizations, it is already 67 participants.

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It should be noted that on August 23, the third summit of the "Crimean Platform" will be held in Kyiv. It takes place in a hybrid format.

The day before, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar reported that the summit will have two tasks:

• Talk about security in the Black Sea-Azov region,
• about the future of Crimea, how Ukraine sees it, and the fact that no peace talks are possible without Crimea.

The hybrid format of the third summit provides an opportunity for leaders from distant countries to join.

Ukraine sent more than 100 invitations to the countries' leaders to participate in the summit on behalf of the President of Ukraine.

Among the top guests who personally came to Ukraine:

• President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda,
• the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa,
• Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo.

It should be noted that the Initiative was created by Ukraine back in 2021 when the founding summit was held. Then, a joint declaration of the participants of the Crimean platform was adopted. Representatives of 43 countries took part in the meeting.