Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Brussels, November 21 (Interfax) - After the NATO summit in Bucharest gave Ukraine guarantees of it future membership in the alliance, it is less important when Ukraine is granted the Membership Action Plan (MAP).

"There is too much political debate now. The issue of MAP is over politicized. After receiving guarantees of membership in Bucharest MAP has little meaning," Borys Kremenetsky, head of the department for Euro-Atlantic Integration of the Ukrainian General Staff, announced.

He said that Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola the same as the chiefs of General Staffs of NATO countries share this viewpoint.

MAP "as a purely technical mechanism which any country could join" was introduced only in 1999, Kremenetsky said.

"As Di Paola noted, it is not a question whether Ukraine will be a NATO member or not, the question is when," Kremenetsky said.