KYIV. Sept 1 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed an agreement on strategic foundations of the defense partnership in Washington on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the agreement as "a new stage in Ukraine-U.S. defense cooperation."
"For us, U.S. support for Ukraine's territorial integrity, gaining NATO membership and joint opposition to Russian aggression are very important," Zelensky said on Twitter.
Taran and Austin also signed an agreement on research, development, testing and evaluation projects.
According to a statement published on the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's website, the agreement lays down an international legal basis for contracts for joint research and development projects in the field of defense.
The document creates conditions for the implementation of advanced defense technologies, the launch of projects in the field of modernization of armaments and military equipment with investments from the United States. Meanwhile, Ukrainian research centers will be allowed to participate in U.S. projects.
It is planned to promote products and services of both countries in third markets with due account of NATO standards, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian State Space Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense signed a memorandum of understanding in the field of spaceflight and the provision of services and information on space situational awareness.
The document will create conditions for the provision of specialists from Ukraine state and military administrations, the Ukrainian State Space Agency, researchers and other workers with systemic information in the field of space.
That will help identify the existent spacecraft in all public resources, to model their orbital flights, to study their functional capacities, and to create domestic catalogues of space objects.