23 Oct. 2005

NATO steps up reform assistance to Ukraine News 18/10/2005 - SHAPE North Atlantic Council visits Ukraine Background NATO-Ukraine relations Multimedia 24/10/2005 - NATO Meeting with the President of Lithuania High resolution photos 24/10/2005 - NATO Family portrait High resolution photos 24/10/2005 - NATO Signing Ceremony High resolution photos 24/10/2005 - NATO Press conference High resolution photos During Informal High-Level Consultations in Vilnius, 23 and 24 October, Defence Ministers from NATO and Ukraine agreed to enhance Alliance support for Ukraine’s defence and security sector reform process. The meeting was the latest development in NATO’s busy cooperation with Ukraine, including an Intensified Dialogue with Ukraine on its membership aspirations, launched in April this year. The consultations focused on defence and security sector reform as this is an essential part of Ukraine’s modernisation and a key prerequisite for NATO membership. Among specific issues discussed were Ukraine's defence policy review and the ongoing transformation of the Ukrainian armed forces; defence-related aspects of the Intensified Dialogue including preparation for the requirements of NATO membership; and NATO-Ukraine co-operation in implementing wider security sector reforms including in the framework of a national security sector review that Ukraine intends to launch. Specific commitments Ukrainian Defence Minister Anatoliy Gritsenko and Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, Anatoliy Kinakh, provided details on the planned pace and scope of the reforms. These will encompass not only the armed forces of Ukraine, but also security services, emergency agencies, and border guards. NATO member countries in turn offered specific packages of assistance to help Ukraine achieve its goals. “The picture is clear: Ukrainian authorities are very serious about their membership aspirations, NATO reaffirms its open door policy and intends to offer maximum help,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters. At the meeting, 15 NATO countries and Ukraine also signed a letter of intent for Nations expressing their support for a NATO-Ukraine Joint Working Group on the Defence Reform Programme for Professional Development of civilian personnel employed in the Ukrainian security institutions. No secret timetable The NATO Secretary General stressed, however, that there was no “secret timetable” for Ukraine’s membership in NATO. The consultations followed a very busy month in NATO-Ukraine relations: the beginning of staff-level talks under the Intensified Dialogue on membership; a visit by the Prime Minister of Ukraine to NATO Headquarters; and a visit of the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s principal decision-making body, to Ukraine. The conference was co-organised by NATO and the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of the Vilnius University.