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Ukraine, NATO discuss Kiev's membership bid
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-17 09:10 KIEV -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko met here Monday with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to discuss Kiev's contentious bid to join the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP). "Decision making in NATO is by the 26 allies and by them only...nobody else will take this decision but the 26 allies," the NATO chief told a news conference after the meeting, dismissing the idea of a Russian veto. The development of relations between Ukraine and NATO is not directed against any third country, he emphasized. De Hoop Scheffer pledged to help put Ukraine on the track to membership but refrained from giving specific dates. Ukraine must continue with reforms to qualify for NATO membership and the alliance is ready to provide support and assistance, he said. However, de Hoop Scheffer declined to predict whether Ukraine would be approved as an official candidate for NATO membership this year. "The decision will be made in accordance with NATO's internal mechanism," he said. The Ukrainian president reiterated his country's wish to join the MAP at the NATO meeting in December. "We very much hope that a positive decision will be taken this year," he said. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters staged demonstrations close to the presidential palace in Kiev, where the meeting between de Hoop Scheffer and Yushchenko was underway. The demonstrators carried placards reading "Ukraine is territory without NATO!" and "No to NATO!". They also shouted "Russians are our Brothers!" while trying to break through police lines. Meanwhile, a slightly larger pro-NATO demonstration took place at the other end of the palace, with demonstrators waving placards that read "NATO, Yes!" Ukrainian authorities are keen to join the alliance, insisting it will ensure a secure future for the country. However, its population is split on the issue. Opinion polls show that more than half of Ukraine's population have a deeply negative view of NATO, especially those in the east of the country, which has close ties with Russia. At a NATO summit in Bucharest in April, the alliance refused to admit Ukraine and Georgia to its MAP, despite US President George W. Bush's strong support for the bid by the former Soviet states. NATO said it would reconsider the countries' NATO bid at a meeting of its foreign ministers in December. |
