National Security and Defense Council Secretary points to dynamism in relations with NATO

Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have assumed new dynamism and activity this year, as Yevhen Marchuk, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine pointed out at a joint press conference with Daniel Speckhard, chairman of the NATO Political Committee. Mr. Speckhard himself said that relations between Ukraine and NATO have been developing “phenomenally” this year. To illustrate this, he recalled numerous meetings of official Ukrainian representatives with the alliance, especially the visit of NATO Secretary General George Robertson to Ukraine, the meeting of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko with the NATO leadership in Brussels, and the visit to Ukraine with the NATO committee of foreign ministers. Mr. Marchuk noted that cooperation with NATO has been recognized by the President of Ukraine as one of the strategic directions of the nation’s foreign policy. Leonid Kuchma, incidentally, also okayed drawing up a new program of cooperation with the alliance to 2005.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian side could not avoid admitting its many earlier mistakes in working with NATO, especially with respect to fulfilling the tasks set out in the existing program. Mr. Marchuk noted that some civilian ministries and agencies simply “set themselves goals they were not able to reach organizationally.” Thus, as the new program is being developed, the Ukrainian representative stressed that these institutions “will no longer plan what they cannot do.” In his opinion, the most successful NATO cooperation was in fact done by two civilian ministries, the Ministry for Emergencies and the Ministry of Education. Conversely, the Ministry of Transport did not utilize its available capacity, Mr. Marchuk claimed.

Mr. Speckhard did not criticize Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press conference. As tradition requires, he pointed out that the alliance pays considerable attention to cooperation with Ukraine, for “we have common security interests, common goals and tasks aimed at creating a peaceful and stable Europe.” He stressed that NATO recognizes the role of Ukraine in achieving these goals as well as this country’s successes in ensuring its own and regional security. The NATO Political Committee chairman also noted there is no contradiction in Ukraine cooperating with both NATO member states and “ neighboring countries.” The committee as a whole is concerned with Ukrainian public opinion, “somewhat prejudiced and running counter to reality,” on Kyiv’s cooperation with Brussels. Mr. Speckhard expressed the hope that the NATO Political Committee delegation’s visit “will dispel Ukraine’s myths” about the alliance. To this end, the program of the visit of Mr. Speckhard, who flew to Kharkiv on October 5, comprises a series of meeting with not only the official representatives but also students and members of various non-governmental organizations.