US Welcomes Ukraine’s Course on Coming Together with NATO

The United States of America welcomes Ukraine’s statement on seeking NATO membership, deputy head of the US Mission in Ukraine Maria Yovanovitch said last Thursday in Kyiv at a seminar, How to Obtain NATO Member Status: Post-Communist Countries’ Experience and Possibilities for Applying It in Ukraine. As she put it, the US considers Ukraine’s seeking member-ship in the North Atlantic alliance a signal for this country to implement economy, political, and defense reforms. Simultaneously, the deputy head of the US Mission noted that Ukraine’s goals should correspond to NATO ones. To achieve this, she added, Ukraine must be guided by universal human values: democracy, human rights, the rule of the law, personal freedom, market economy, as well as to promote the effective functioning of state institutions and take measures against corruption. Attaining European standards, in the diplomat’s view, is the most complicated task facing Ukraine, since she believes there are certain inert groups within the state impeding decisions on Ukraine moving the European way, reports UNIAN. Ms. Yovanovitch stated that Ukraine’s leaders’ political will made public on May 23 (statement by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Yevhen Marchuk that Ukraine has started the process aimed on joining the security system based on NATO) will be subject to serious trials. She added that much work should be carried out to inform the public on what NATO is. The community must reach a consensus.

The US government commented on NSDC secretary’s statement saying that the America has long believed that NATO should keep the doors open to all European democracies willing and able to undertake the relevant obligations and make their contribution to Euro-Atlantic security. The comment also states that the US has discussed with Ukraine ways to give new impetus and content to the Ukraine-NATO special partnership and hopes that this will lay in the basis of the bilateral relationship. This issue will be further discussed at the Ukraine- NATO Commission meeting on July 9 in Kyiv.

The commentary also states that along with the strengthening of Ukraine-NATO relations the US will expect from it the needed reforms in the economic, political, and defense spheres in order to furthering its establishing itself as a European democracy.

(Read more on Ukraine’s prospects for NATO membership on pp. DAY AFTER DAY and CLOSEUP)