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| Europe |
| NATO chief heads to Ukraine for talks on reforms |
| 2005-06-27 |
| KIEV - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was due to arrive in Ukraine on Monday for talks on reforms, which the new pro-Western authorities in the ex-Soviet nation have pledged to carry out with an eye to eventually joining the alliance. Scheffer, due in Kiev at 11:00 am for a one-day visit, will meet with President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Defense Minister Anatoliy Grytsenko and other senior officials in parliament and government. Topping the agenda is progress on reforms that Yushchenkoâs administration â which came to power after toppling a pro-Russia regime during last yearâs âorange revolutionâ â has undertaken to make as part of its drive for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. âWe and the Ukrainian authorities have to concentrate our attention above all on reaching the main goal â carrying out necessary reforms,â Scheffer said in an interview with the Zerkalo Nedeli weekly in Kiev ahead of his visit. Yushchenkoâs inauguration has boosted Ukraine-NATO ties â in April he reinstated the objective of joining NATO as part of Ukraineâs military policy and at an informal meeting the same month in Vilnius, NATO foreign ministers agreed on a three-page package of âshort-term actionsâ designed to help Kiev carry out reforms necessary for closer cooperation with the alliance. Scheffer called that agreement a NATO show of support for Ukraineâs aspirations for further European integration, âbut much of the success of this process will depend on Ukraine. NATO will be ready to support and consult it along the route,â according to the Russian translation of his Zerkalo Nedeli interview. Ukraine has long been a member of NATOâs Partnership for Peace program of closer ties with former Communist states, but Yushchenko wants the nation to eventually join the Westâs former Cold War-era military bloc. Such plans, however, face major obstacles. For one, most Ukrainians oppose their country joining the alliance â a May opinion survey showed that 55.7 percent of the population were against it, up from 48 percent in February. Moscow, Kievâs traditional powerbroker which today supplies it with most of its energy needs, also opposes Ukraineâs NATO ambitions as it would enlarge the allianceâs borders with Russia and remove a major parts supplier to the Russian military. Ukraineâs defense industry sells much of its production to Moscow â Kiev supplies engines for Russian helicopters, gas turbines for Russian ships, parts for Russian anti-aircraft systems and Russian military satellites are sent into orbit on Ukrainian rocket launchers. |
| Posted by:Steve White |