Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has welcomed NATO’s decision to grant Ukraine the status of an aspirant country and said that Kyiv’s next goal is to receive a Membership Action Plan (MAP).
“I welcome an important long-awaited and logical decision by NATO to raise Ukraine’s ambitions regarding the alliance. This has become recognition of the real state of our relations with NATO. This is exactly what was discussed during my last meeting with the NATO secretary general in Munich, as well as a recent telephone conversation with the U.S. vice president,” Poroshenko wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.
He expressed gratitude “for a firm position on supporting Ukraine for which one of the key priorities of national security is achieving the criteria for membership in the alliance.”
“Our next ambition is a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine. This issue was raised in my letter to Jens Stoltenberg in February 2018, in which, with reference to Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, I officially declared Ukraine’s desire to become a member of the alliance,” Poroshenko said.
He noted that “quiet diplomacy to promote our principled positions” gives its significant results.
It was reported on March 10 that NATO had recognized an aspirant country status for Ukraine.
“Currently, four partner countries have declared their aspirations to NATO membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine,” reads a report posted on NATO’s website.
The status of “aspirant country” means that countries that declared their aspiration to accede to the alliance are first invited to join an intensified dialogue with NATO on the reforms needed for this.
