A working meeting was held between the representatives of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and a foreign delegation of the Defence Education Enhancement Program (DEEP) at the premises of Naval Institute of National University «Odessa Maritime Academy».

The event was attended by Ivan Rusnak, First Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine and Mariusz Solis, Director of NATO’s Defence Education Enhancement Program.

The purpose of the event was to summarize the results of the current year and discuss the areas of cooperation for 2019-2020, taking into account the need to increase training of Naval Forces and the worsening security situation in the Black and Azov Seas.

Ivan Rusnak, First Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine noted that the presence of trained personnel made it possible to confront the enemy. The representative of the Defence department also noted that the implementation of Alliance standards in the educational process and in-depth study of the English language was the key to the successful training of Ukrainian seafarers according to NATO’s standards.

Rostislav Sharov, Deputy Head of Naval Institute stated that NATO’s DEEP program was fully implemented in the current year. That was proved by the fact that the students of Naval Institute had completed an internship in the naval educational institutions as well as on board the ships of the member countries and partner countries of the Alliance.

Besides, Naval Institute improved a number of specialities and specializations in accordance with NATO’s standards and excluded the disciplines that were not related to the training of Naval Forces specialists thanks to the recommendations of foreign colleagues.

The chairman of the foreign delegation noted the intentions to cooperate further and provide comprehensive assistance under the NATO’s DEEP program. Having completed English language courses at the Academy of the Naval Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria, the staff of Naval Institute were awarded the appropriate certificates. Additionally, the foreign delegation examined the educational and material base of the University.

According to the results of the meeting, the representatives of the parties identified the main directions and forms of further cooperation in the field of reforming and developing Ukrainian military education.