Ukraine Adopts Law to Steer Clear of Joining NATO

World | June 3, 2010, Thursday // 20:57
Bulgaria: Ukraine Adopts Law to Steer Clear of Joining NATO Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) speaks with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych (R). Photo by EPA/BGNES

Ukrainian Parliament has turned the country into a nonaligned state by adopting a law ruling out future NATO membership.

The newly adopted law on foreign and domestic policies does not contain an article stating that Ukraine seeks to become a NATO member. It mentions among the country’s foreign policy priorities full-fledged participation in regional and European collective security systems, and accession to the EU while keeping its good neighborly and strategic relations with Russia and the other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the loose international framework that succeeded the Soviet Union.

The law was passed by a sufficiently comfortable margin – 253 MPs voted in its favor with 226 necessary to pass it.

"The main task of foreign policy and security is the protection of national interests in the world, and the nonalignment policy is one of the mechanisms. It meets requirements of the time, and we will strictly adhere to it," Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said during an address to the nation on Thursday as cited by BTA.

The adoption of the nonalignment law is seen as an important success for Yanukovich, who, after winning the presidential elections in February 2010, has increasingly abandoned the anti-Russian course of his predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, a proponent of Ukraine’s NATO integration.

Among the domestic policy priorities, the law adopted Thursday lists the guarantees for the constitutional rights and freedoms of the Ukrainian citizens, the development of civil society and its democratic institutions, development of state sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as the development of a competitive market economy.

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Tags: Ukraine, NATO, Russia, nonaligned, Viktor Yanukovich, EU integration

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