A draft, “Strategy of the Relationships between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” is ready, currently being deliberated by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The document is expected to be shortly approved by a special presidential edict, NSDC Deputy Secretary Serhiy Pyrozhkov told Interfax Ukraine. “We’ll try to have it approved prior to NATO Secretary General George Robertson’s visit to Ukraine,” he said (the visit is scheduled for July 9 — Ed.), adding that the strategy is “a framework document, meaning that other documents will be adopted, providing for specific actions... This document justifies the need to enact the Ukrainian strategy aimed at Euro-Atlantic integration; also, this enactment does not contravene the constitution.” The NSDC deputy secretary further announced that the strategy “defines the Ukrainian foreign policy guidelines,” and that, following the presidential edict, it will have to be deliberated in the Verkhovna Rada, because “under the constitution, political guidelines are determined by the parliament.” Academician Pyrozhkov stressed that the Strategy is a “political document designed to deepen our relationship with NATO, with integration into Euro-Atlantic structures being the ultimate aim... no specific terms are defined, because this is a long-term process,” but the document “is not very large.”
A June 11 meeting of national Ukrainian-NATO cooperation coordinators presided over by NSDC Secretary Yevhen Marchuk noted that an inert perception by a considerable part of Ukrainian society of the proclaimed national course of rapprochement with NATO is “a serious threat” and could make its implementation very complicated. Coordinators spoke for “the need to effectively uphold the process of Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration... This will require even closer cooperation with Verkhovna Rada and its special committees, particularly those in charge of foreign affairs, national security and defense, and European integration.”
