NATO Thanks Ukraine

Defense ministers of NATO member states expressed their gratitude to Ukraine for its “practical contribution to peace and stability, including its active involvement in the Balkans and contribution to the post-conflict stabilization of Iraq.” So said in the statement released by NATO Headquarters on the results of the December 2 Ukraine- NATO Committee Brussels meeting on the level of defense ministers.

The statement reads that ministers listened to Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk’s report on the reform of the Armed Forces and Ukraine’s security system in the current year and outlined the priorities for Ukraine’s cooperation with NATO in this direction for 2004. The meeting participants named “the launch of the comprehensive defense review, and wider security sector reforms” among Ukraine’s major achievements in 2003. NATO representatives also commended strengthening civil control of Ukraine’s security sector.

After the meeting, Minister Marchuk told journalists that “the cooperation between the Ukraine-NATO Committee is developing quite successfully.” Simultaneously, according to France Press Agency information, he was worried with the fact that in certain spheres Russia has moved further in its cooperation with the alliance than Ukraine. In Minister Marchuk’s words, “Russia has made it clear that it would never join NATO, while Ukraine’s final goal is integration into the alliance.” The minister also expects aggravation in the polemics on the NATO issue in Ukraine in connection with the coming presidential elections scheduled for the fall of 2004. “With the elections coming closer, both NATO champions and opponents will become more active,” Marchuk stated, adding that he means more active opposition to the North Atlantic alliance in Verkhovna Rada.

Yevhen Marchuk stated that the NATO states’ defense ministers understood positively his information on the new stage of the military reform in Ukraine, in course of which the Ukrainian Armed Forces manpower will decrease to 200,000 persons by 2006. Next year, according to the NATO statement, Ukraine and the alliance will focus their efforts on the defense reform and strengthening civil and democratic control of Ukraine’s security sector. The ministers also reaffirmed NATO’s commitment to support Ukraine in its efforts to reform its defense and security sector in the context of its goal of Euro- Atlantic integration.