Pledging reforms by 2020, Ukraine seeks roadmap to NATO membership

Record ID: 899352

  • Title: Pledging reforms by 2020, Ukraine seeks roadmap to NATO membership
  • Date: 10th July 2017
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (JULY 10, 2017) (REUTERS) NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL JENS STOLTENBERG GETTING OFF CAR, SHAKING HANDS WITH UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT PETRO POROSHENKO, WALKING INTO PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION HEADQUARTERS SIGN BY ENTRANCE READING (UKRAINIAN) "PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE" AND UKRAINIAN FLAGS
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2017 14:43
  • Keywords: Ukraine NATO Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Russia
  • Location: KIEV, UKRAINE
  • City: KIEV, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: NATO,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016P4VNEV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Ukraine will begin discussions with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on an action plan to get it into the U.S.-led alliance, its leader said on Monday (July 10), while the country would work on reforms to meet membership standards by 2020.
    President Petro Poroshenko, whose country is fighting a Kremlin-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine, revived the prospect of NATO membership during a visit by NATO Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg who himself used the occasion to call on Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
    NATO leaders agreed at a summit in 2008 that Ukraine would one day become a member of the alliance. But there was little popular support for the issue at the time and it was never pursued by Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovich.
    Support for NATO membership however has soared since Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014, following the fall of Yanukovich, and the outbreak of the war in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 10,000 people.
    Some 69 percent of Ukrainians want to join NATO, according to a June poll by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, compared to 28 percent support in 2012 when Yanukovich was in power.
    Most observers say any prospect of NATO membership for Ukraine is years off. No dates were issued for when talks on a membership action plan might begin.
    A NATO spokeswoman said these would relate to defense, anti-corruption measures, governance and law enforcement.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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