LITHUANIA: Informal consultations begin between NATO and Ukraine in Lithuania

Record ID: 184685

  • Title: LITHUANIA: Informal consultations begin between NATO and Ukraine in Lithuania
  • Date: 24th October 2005
  • Summary: NATO SECRETARY GENERAL JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER TAKING HIS SEAT
  • Embargoed: 8th November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lithuania
  • Country: Lithuania
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA71WK0FA10VW9979WHJHIO6PN8
  • Story Text: Informal high-level Ukraine-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) consultations started in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, on Monday (October 24).
    NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Ukrainian Defence Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko and the defence ministers from the alliance's member states were to discus the implementation of defence policy, the reformation of Ukraine's armed forces and defence control improvement, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry said in a statement.
    U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has stressed the importance of ties between NATO and Ukraine. After meeting Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus in Vilnius on Sunday evening (October 23) he said Ukraine should be helped to reform and join NATO.
    Rumsfeld assured Ukraine's defence minister on Sunday the United States will continue its efforts to help the former Soviet state make the reforms necessary for it to qualify for NATO membership.
    Rumsfeld and Hrytsenko are among 10 defence ministers participating in the Informal NATO-Ukraine High Level Consultations.
    The meeting, the fourth of its kind during the past four years, is part of an intensified dialogue under way in response to Ukraine's interest in accelerating its admission to NATO.
    NATO has a solid interest in welcoming Ukraine into its ranks, a senior defence official told reporters, saying a stable, democratic and independent Ukraine was extremely important to European and Western security.
    Final acceptance into the alliance will be based on Ukraine's progress on key reform goals. Senior U.S. officials said those goals involve political, economic and defence reforms, with defence initiatives moving forward the most rapidly.
    Earlier, during an eight-day trip through Asia that concluded in Lithuania, Rumsfeld said the United States and its NATO allies have worked diligently to help Ukraine make the kinds of reforms and changes and adjustments in its military so it can get take a path that will bring it closer to NATO.
    Among these efforts is a programme to reduce conscription within the Ukrainian military to promote a more professional military, elevate the quality of its non-commissioned officer corps, enhance staff officer skills and improve Ukraine's military education system.
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