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NATO to start work on strategic multi-year program for Ukraine that to bring its membership in alliance closer – Stoltenberg
BRUSSELS. April 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – NATO allies have agreed to start work on a strategic multi-year program for Ukraine that will help the country towards path to membership, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after a two-day meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
“We agreed to start work on developing a strategic multi-year assistance program for Ukraine. It is a clear demonstration that our support will continue for a long haul to increase Ukraine’s interoperability with NATO and to bring it to NATO standards. This will assist Ukraine on its path to Euro-Atlantic integration, because Ukraine’s future is in the Euro-Atlantic family,” he said.
Stoltenberg reaffirmed that NATO’s position is that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance. “And that position has not changed. But we know that there are at least two things to address, to make that possible. One is that we need to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation, because any meaningful discussion about Ukraine as a member of the alliance has to be based on that Ukraine is a democratic independent nation in Europe. The first step, the basic requirement is to provide military support to Ukraine so President Putin does not win his war of aggression. The second thing we need to address is that when this war ends and Ukraine prevails, then of course we need to ensure that we have the highest level of interoperability, that Ukraine is able to move from Soviet-era standards, doctrines, ways of operating in their armed forces. This transition has started, but we need more and we need to implement it quicker,” the NATO Secretary General said.
According to him, this is the difference between the current support that NATO provides to Ukraine and the future long-term program. “The support that NATO and Allies are providing to Ukraine is that it immediate needs. But that is immediate needs to help Ukraine now. This program is more long term prospective, that is about building the institutions, helping with the transition [to NATO standards], the interoperability, the standards, the doctrines – all of these things that we need to have in place to move towards membership. That is the difference,” Stoltenberg said.
