Madrid, Spain 3 June 2003 .MP3/3200Kb

Statement at the Joint Point de Presse by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoliy Zlenko following the Meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission Lord Robertson: We have just concluded a very productive meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at Foreign Ministers level and we are obviously delighted to welcome a good friend, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Anatoliy Zlenko. We have concluded a very productive meeting. It was a good opportunity to discuss the contribution that our distinctive partnerships make to peace and stability in the Euro- Atlantic area. The minister also used the meeting to review our overall relations and I am happy to report to you that on both scores we have reported good progress. The NATO nations and Ukraine share a common vision on the need to cooperate and facing the current security challenges. We therefore welcome the determined efforts of Ukraine to meet the ambitious objectives of its Action Plan. It will help to fulfill its ambition of fully integrating into the Euro Atlantic community. Ukraine is definitely on the right track and it must maintain the pace and that is a pace to fully establish media freedom and the rule of law to strengthen civil society and to improve further export controls. The NATO countries will, of course, stay engaged. The distinctive NATO-Ukraine Partnership has withstood the test of time and today’s meeting allows us to look ahead with confidence. Our ministers this afternoon also used the opportunity to add their condolences on the tragic death of the Spanish peacekeepers, who died last week in Turkey. But I add to these condolences their sincere sympathy to the Ukrainian authorities on the death of 12 Ukrainian aviators, who also died and perished in that terrible tragedy. And I express sincere condolences and sympathy to both countries and to all of those who have bereaved in this accident. Anatoliy Zlenko: Thank you. Mr. Secretary General, ladies and gentlemen, before speaking about the results of the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting I want to stress once again that they all took very hard the tragic aircraft crash in Turkey. Thank you for expressing your condolences in connection with the deaths of our 12 pilots, as well as 62 Spanish peacekeepers. Personally I and all Ukrainians feel sincere profound grief. Nothing can be more important than human life. It is important now to conduct a thorough investigation to find out all the reasons on the tragedy and to do everything possible to exclude such accidents in the future. Now let me turn back to the outcome of NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting. This session was the first NUC ministerial after Prague. It was very important meeting for my country. As usual we exchange views on a wide range of international security issues. We review as well NATO-Ukraine relations, in particular the stages of implementation of the NATO-Ukraine Action Plan and the Target Plan. NATO ministers welcomed tangible progress made by Ukraine in realization of the activities under the objectives of the Target Plant. We all agreed on the necessity to continue reforms in economic, military and defence spheres. In my speech I underlined Ukraine's strong will to fulfil all their obligations, taken to meet NATO standards in all above-mentioned areas. As an important outcome of the NUC meeting we consider the acknowledgement that Ukraine and NATO have brought their relationship to a new level since Prague. This fact is very encouraging for Ukraine. Having such incentive will redouble our efforts to ensure a speedy progress in achieving all the goals envisaged by the Action Plan. The assessments of the results of this work will be presented at the next ministerial meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission meeting in the end of this year. I would like to thank the Secretary General for his kind words addressed to my country and especially in connection with the implementation by our authorities, by Ukraine as a whole Action Plan and Target Plan. Thank you very much. Questions and answers Q: (inaudible)... Lord Robertson: Well our relationship has obviously progressed in the current year beyond the trouble that interfered with our relationship before. That has mainly been the result of a determined effort by the Ukrainian authorities to focus on the relationship, on defence reform, on this Annual Target Plan, which has been published in an unprecedented effort at transparency. And I think we've done much to repair the lack of confidence that we had on the NATO side at an earlier stage in this year. I think that today's meeting represented a very qualitative improvement in what's happening and of course, it followed on a very productive meeting in Washington with a number of defence ministers, including Defence Secretary Rumsfeld. We went over many elements in the relationship that we have at the moment. Anatoliy Zlenko: In my view, it's much better since the future of our relations and concentrated the attention on the constructive approach, on a strategic approach. And our strategic approach of our foreign policy is the future membership in NATO. We would like to overcome the misunderstanding which happened in the future and to concentrate maximum on the future. On the future relations between Ukraine and NATO. Q: (inaudible)... Lord Robertson: Well, I've already answered that question this morning and I have nothing to add to what I said before. NAMSA acts as a contracting agency for many countries in NATO and out of NATO. The decision to us NAMSA is a decision by national authorities and therefore Spain is entitled to do that if it wants to do it.