Contents tagged with NATO membership

  • Ukraine and Georgia to pull together for EU and NATO membership

    Ukraine and Georgia should unite their efforts to achieve joint goals: membership in the European Union and NATO, said Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairperson of the Georgian Parliament, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

    "Our states have common challenges, and therefore we should unite our efforts to respond to them and achieve our goals... Our main goal is full membership in the European Union and NATO. In this context, it is very important to pool our efforts so that it does happen," Kobakhidze stated at …

  • Russia: NATO is pressuring Serbia to join Alliance

    Members of the Serbian Parliament's Committee on Defense and Internal Affairs reported to Russian colleagues that Belgrade is feeling pressure from NATO to join the Alliance, as stated by the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Andrei Klimov, on November 24 in Belgrade, RIA Novosti reports.

    "The Serbs are now under unprecedented pressure; today, in a conversation with members of their Committee on Defense and Internal Affairs, they made …

  • Finland indicates possibility of joining NATO

    In an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Timo Soini has stated that he does not rule out the possibility that his country will join the North Atlantic Alliance in the future.

    "Neither Finland nor Sweden is yet part of NATO, and as I understand, our countries are not currently discussing accession to NATO. We should not exclude the possibility of joining NATO. Every country should have that opportunity, and that is why open-door politics is …

  • Poroshenko signed a law on the course of Ukraine's accession to NATO

    President Petro Poroshenko signed a law amending several laws regarding foreign policy processes which listed Ukraine's accession to NATO as one of the bases of Ukrainian foreign policy, as reported on the Presidential website.

    The previous version of Article 11 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Basics of Domestic and Foreign Policy," the priority was "to deepen cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in order to meet the criteria necessary to obtain membership in this organization. …

  • The President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly confident that Ukraine will join the Alliance in the future

    The President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Paolo Alli expressed his confidence that Ukraine will become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance in the future. He stated this at a joint briefing with Andriy Parubiy, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, who recently said that Ukraine should become the next NATO member after Montenegro.

    “There is still much to be done along the way but we see very great progress and we are confident that Ukraine will become a NATO member. We, the …

  • Ukraine intends to introduce military ranks according to NATO standards

    In the near future, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense plans to add four new ranks to its existing non-commissioned officer ranks, based on the model used by the US and several NATO states, as stated by Defense Ministry Spokesperson Oksana Havrylyuk at a briefing.

    “The Ministry of Defense is working on legislation with which it will introduce new ranks. In particular, it envisages an expansion of the role of non-commissioned and petty officers in accordance with NATO’s standards,” she said. …

  • Defying President's veto Moldovan parliament approves protocol on military cooperation with Romania

    The Moldovan parliament overrode the veto of President Igor Dodon and re-ratified the protocol on military cooperation with Romania on Friday, June 9.

    The protocol had been ratified as early as March 30 but the head of the state, opposed to expanding the relations of Moldova with NATO and refused to sign it. Deputies from the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova who support Dodon voted against it.

    "The protocol directly contradicts the Constitution and the principle of permanent …

  • Macedonia may change name in order to join NATO

    Macedonia may join EU under the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which Greece insists on, as stated by Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Macedonian Radio Television (MRT).

    “There are two ways – either solving the problem, or joining NATO under a conditional name and continuing negotiations with Greece on the issue that Greece has with the constitutional name of our country, in connection with our integration into the EU. They know about our desire to join the European …

  • Verkhovna Rada adds the goal of joining NATO to Ukraine’s foreign policy

    On Thursday, May 8, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Bill Number 6470 that defines Ukraine’s accession to NATO as one of the bases of foreign policy. 276 people's deputies voted in favor of bill.

    In the old version of Article 11 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Basics of Domestic and Foreign Policy," the priority was defined as "to deepen cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in order to meet the criteria necessary to obtain membership in this organization."

    Now, the goal of …

  • Herashchenko: Ukraine must make an effort to become a NATO member

    First Deputy Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Herashchenko hopes that Ukraine will become the 30th member of NATO. She expressed her views on Facebook while commenting on Montenegro entering the alliance.

    Herashchenko believes that in 2008, Ukraine lost its chance to get the Action Plan on NATO membership because Russia’s coercion prevented any unity in this issue among political elite.

    “We must wash away this guilt and do everything possible to make Ukraine a NATO member. We must apply …