Ukraine turns back on idea of integration with NATO

KIEV, June 1 (Itar-Tass) -- The item on NATO integration has been removed from the bill on Ukraine’s home and foreign policy. The draft, approved at Tuesday’s meeting of the Security and Defense Council under the chairmanship of Viktor Yanukovich, has been registered in the country’ s parliament.

Parliamentary Speaker Vladimir Litvin said that this bill will be considered in the first reading on June 3.

Among the basic principles the bill mentions Ukraine’s full-fledged participation in the pan-European and regional systems of collective security, membership of the European Union on the condition of neighborly relations and strategic partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS member-states, as well as with other countries of the world. The item on Ukraine’s future membership of NATO is gone.

The national priorities are guarantees of constitutional rights and freedoms of the individual and citizen, development of civil society and its democratic institutions, protection of the state sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the state borders, prevention of interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine, stronger political and social stability in society, measures to ensure the development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life in the whole territory of the country, guarantees of the free development, use and protection of the Russian language and other minority languages in Ukraine, creation of a competitive, socially oriented free market economy and sustainable growth of the standard of living and wealth of the population.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15185646&PageNum=0



Russia, Ukraine sign nuclear fuel contract

KIEV, June 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia’s TVEL and Ukraine’s Energoatom have signed a long-term contract on the delivery of nuclear fuel to Ukrainian nuclear power plants after 2010.

The contract was signed in development of a protocol of the sixth meeting of the Russia-Ukraine Interstate Commission’s Economic Cooperation Committee of April 30, 2010.

“The contract is mutually beneficial,” Energoatom President Yuri Nedashkovsky said.

TVEL started to cooperate with Ukraine in 1996, after it had won an international tender for fuel deliveries to water-cooled water-moderated reactors of Ukraine. TVEL and Energoatom signed a contract in 1997 to ensure fuel shipments thru 2010.

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Russia sees no justification for deploying Patriots in Poland

Russia can see no reason that would justify the deployment of Patriot missiles in Poland, says Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko. He told a new conference in Moscow on Friday that if the Patriot missile systems continued to be deployed on a permanent basis, that would be in breach of the pledge that NATO made when signing the Founding Act to the effect that the North Atlantic Alliance nations would refrain from stationing major military forces in the vicinity of the Russian border. We will keep a close eye on the situation, and negotiate the issue with our NATO partners to get their interpretation of the commitment to that end and have them outline the parameters of specific combat forces in the form of legally binding agreements between Russia and NATO, the Deputy Russian Foreign Minister added. It transpired earlier today that Poland has deployed a foreign military base, namely a battery of US Patriot missiles in the small town of Morong, 80 kilometres away from the Russian border.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/05/28/8650472.html

Kiev to continue cooperation with NATO, but no membership

KIEV, May 27 (Itar-Tass) - The question on Ukraine’s membership of NATO has been shelved now, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Konstantin Grishchenko on Thursday at the ninth interdepartmental meeting on coordination of activities of bodies of executive power in foreign affairs.

“The idea of Ukraine’s membership of the alliance does not enjoy support of the majority of Ukrainians and is destructive for efficiency of the state’s foreign policy,” the minister explained.

He noted at the same time that Kiev would continue developing relations with NATO. “We jotted out from the agenda the question on a membership of the alliance. Precisely this approach is in full compliance with the present state of affairs,” Grishchenko emphasised.

He reckons at the same time that participation in international organisations is an urgent thing for Ukraine. “This gives a chance to use the best international experience and resources for the country’s development,” Grishchenko said.

On Wednesday, first deputy secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council Stepan Gavrish said by the results of a meeting of the joint working Ukraine-NATO group that the Ukrainian side “refrains from the ideology of speedy accession to military-political amalgamations”.

According to the deputy secretary, this stand “will help to concentrate attention and resources on carrying out large-scale social and economic reforms, necessary for the country, and to ensure stable development”. At the same time, “preserving the dynamics of the political dialogue with NATO, Ukraine started establishing strategic partnership with Russia,” Gavrish added.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council had approved the strategy of the country’s relations with NATO in May 2002 whose final aim was to join the North Atlantic alliance. Starting from 1997, Ukraine and NATO have been cooperating in the framework of the signed charter on special partnership.


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Patriot missiles deployment in Poland cannot favour security - FM

MOSCOW, May 26 (Itar-Tass) - The deployment of American Patriot missiles in the territory of Poland does not favour the security and relations of trust, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

“Such military activity does not help to strengthen our mutual security, to develop relations of trust and predictability in this region,” the ministry said.

“We stated earlier that we cannot understand the logic and targets of the cooperation between the United States and Poland in this sphere,” the source said. “We have to state regretfully, that our questions to the Polish and American sides were left unanswered. Neither have we got a reply to our reasons to move the place of the deployment further from the Russian border.”


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Ukraine’s opposition pickets US frigate in Sevastopol

“No to NATO!”, “Ukraine is not NATO!”, “NATO is not in Ukraine!” is what the posters of the left-wing opposition proclaimed when protesters met the arrival in Sevastopol of the USS John L. Hall. The picket was put up by Ukraine’s Progressive Socialist Party. The Interfax news agency says that according to earlier reports, the frigate was to call at the port of Sevastopol on April 20th, on an unofficial visit.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/20/6663800.html

Baltic states don’t need their own air force - NATO chief

The creation of an air force in the Baltic states is inexpedient, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told journalists in Brussels. Mr. Rasmussen said NATO will ensure Baltic air space protection and control until the region becomes capable of creating its own air force. Touching upon the intention of France to sell a Mistral helicopter carrier to Russia, the Secretary General expressed his confidence that Russia wouldn’t use this equipment against any of its neighbors or any NATO ally. Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said that “NATO takes Moscow seriously as a global strategic partner.”

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/14/6402531.html

Yanukovich dismisses commission on Ukraine’s accession to NATO

Yanukovich dismisses commission on Ukraine’s accession to NATO



03.04.2010, 20.00



KIEV, April 3 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has dismissed an inter-agency commission on the preparation of Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

The president signed the relevant decree on April 2. Its text was posted on the presidential website on Saturday.

Another decree dissolved the national centre for Euro-Atlantic integration and relieved Vladimir Gorbulin from the duties of its acting chairman.

The new Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly said that the country’s accession to NATO was not on the agenda. At the same time, official Kiev plans to maintain the present level of cooperation with the alliance.

The inter-agency commission on the preparation of Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the national centre for Euro-Atlantic integration were created in 2006 under President Viktor Yushchenko.

Yanukovich had earlier confirmed that Kiev would continue all cooperation programmes with NATO and reiterated continuity of his policy in regard of NATO.

“Ukraine will fulfil all of the earlier agreements and implement partnership programmes with NATO,” he said.

NATO, too, is committed to active work with the new leadership of Ukraine, Acting Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Robert Simmons said during his latest visit to Kiev.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said that the alliance would support political transformations in Ukraine, help with military reform and facilitate further integration.

He also confirmed that the decision adopted at NATO’s Bucharest Summit remained in force. In April 2008, the leaders of 26 NATO member states made a political statement, in which they said that Ukraine and Georgia would become NATO members with time.

At the same time, Appathurai stressed that the issue of accession to NATO should be decided by the people of Ukraine.

Yanukovich said earlier that Ukraine’s accession to NATO was not on the current agenda.

“The question of Ukraine’s accession to NATO is not on the agenda now. We have already answered this question. Ukraine is interested to develop the collective European security system project,” Yanukovich said.

“We are ready to participate in it and support [Russian] President Dmitry Medvedev’s initiative, which by the way has been supported by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. And we are ready to join in,” Yanukovich said.

However, the alliance’s Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen confirmed that the decision to admit Ukraine and Georgia to NATO remained in effect.

He said that the decision had been made in 2008 and required Ukraine and Georgia to meet certain membership criteria, which they had so far not done.

NATO will assess in December the progress reached by Ukraine and Georgia on the way towards a membership action plan (MAP).

Earlier, Ukraine had completed drafting the annual programme of cooperation with NATO and sent it to the alliance for consideration.

“This programme reflects our readiness to carry out reforms in order to meet NATO standards,” incumbent Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said.

Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Inter-Parliamentary Council in Kiev last spring, NATO Parliamentary Assembly Vice President Assen Agov said the Bucharest Summit had demonstrated the support of many NATO member states to the idea of admitting Ukraine to NATO.

However in order to become a NATO member, Ukraine should intensify democratic reforms, he said.

Ukrainian leaders should also convince the people that cooperation with NATO would benefit their country, Agov said.

NATO's then Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer did not say when Ukraine and Georgia might be admitted to the alliance.

He said it was not possible to answer this question because the decision would depend on the 28 NATO member states.

According to Scheffer, the NATO Council at its ministerial meeting admitted that Ukraine and Georgia would not become members of the alliance any time soon.

At their meeting in Brussels in December, the NATO foreign ministers denied membership action plans (MAP) to Ukraine and Georgia.

At the NATO summit in Bucharest on April 2-4, 2008, twenty-six NATO countries refused to give the Membership Action Plan to Ukraine and Georgia. The plan is a key stage in preparations for NATO membership. Instead, the NATO leaders made a political statement, saying that Ukraine and Georgia would be admitted to the alliance with time. The stumbling block is how to interpret "with time". While Kiev, Tbilisi, Washington and all Baltic countries believe it means "several years", most West European member countries say it's not less than a decade.

Yushchenko said then that the question of Ukraine's accession to NATO would be decided in a nationwide referendum.

“The decision on NATO membership will be made in a referendum. But time has to pass so that people could learn more about the North Atlantic Alliance,” he said.

When Ukraine is invited to join the alliance, the people of Ukraine will then announced its decision in a referendum, he said.

Yushchenko said that there was no alternative to NATO membership for his country.

“Ukraine has no alternative to accession to NATO as a system of collective security,” he said, adding however that “the referendum must not be rushed”.



http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14985895&PageNum=0

Russia urges NATO to crack down on Afghan drugs

Russia urges NATO to crack down on Afghan drugs

Russia believes the United Nations mandate of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan must include a leading role in the fight against Afghan-grown drugs. Speaking in Moscow on Friday, this country’s chief counter-narcotics officer Viktor Ivanov looked forward to NATO help in stopping the northward flow of illegal opiates from Afghan territory. He also announced a Russian plan to coach 225 counter-drug police for Afghanistan. The curriculum includes a course in dog-handling.


http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/03/19/5450355.html

NATO launches air exercises over three Baltic States

NATO launches air exercises over three Baltic States

NATO’s air exercises have got under way over the three Baltic States, - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The exercises, to last until the 20th of this month, comprise air units from France, Lithuania, Poland and the United States. The NATO pilots will rehearse manoeuvring, midair refuelling, aircraft ground handling and the Baltic countries’ ground service cooperation. During the exercise the planes will take off from Tallinn. Accoridng to the NATO official spokesman James Appathurai, the manoeuvres have been scheduled and are being held for the fifth time, to rehearse compatibility of NATO’s ground and air forces in the region. The official emphasized that Russia had been briefed on the exercises fully and well in advance. All relevant information was handed over to Russian ambassador at NATO Dmitry Rogozin in Brussels.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/03/17/5365464.html

Poland must stop setting NATO, EU on Russia - Polish ex-PM

The former Polish Premier Leszek Miller believes his country risks falling out of the international mainstream unless it abandons attempts to make NATO and the European Union enemies of Russia. In an interview with the Russian agency RIA-Novosti Sunday, he said NATO and EU are interested in cooperation with this country and have already brushed aside Polish efforts to attract American missile defences to Eastern Europe and derail the Nord Stream project for a Russian gas pipe to European countries under the Baltic Sea.




http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/03/14/5281651.html

Turkish PM says US Congress vote on “Armenian genocide” was comedy

Turkish PM says US Congress vote on “Armenian genocide” was comedy



06.03.2010, 20.32



ANKARA, March 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday’s vote in the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs on a resolution recognising the fact of “Armenian genocide” during the Ottoman Empire was a comedy.

“The scenario that was played out turned out to be a comedy. The country will not put up with the lie that is being forced upon it,” he said.

Erdogan said Turkey could not accept “such parody” and described the initiators of the vote as shortsighted.

The adoption of the resolution forced Ankara to recall its ambassador to Washington for consultations. He said upon arrival in Ankara that the vote had been wrong from the very beginning.

The diplomat did not say when he planned to return to the United States, adding that this would depend on his consultations and the decisions to be made by the government.

The issue of Armenian genocide has tarnished relations between Turkey and Armenia for decades and is one of the stumbling blocks to their improvement. Another problem is Nagorno-Karabakh.

However, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said the normalisation of relations with Turkey was not conditioned on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Sargsyan said the text of the protocols on the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Turkey did not mention Karabakh or the word “genocide”.

He said Yerevan would seek to resolve the Karabakh issue in accordance with the aspirations of the Armenian population of the disputed enclave.

The president also said that Armenia would not give up attempts to secure international recognition of genocide.

At the same time, he believes that these issues should not be an obstacle to the normalisation of relations between Yerevan and Ankara.

He expressed hope that a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh issue would be achieved, but did not name any deadlines.

According to Sargsyan, this may happen in a distant future.

The first step towards normalisation of bilateral relations, fully severed in 1993 over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, was taken in the autumn of 2008. Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan at the invitation Sargsyan to watch a World Cup qualification game between the national football teams of the two countries. He invited Sargsyan to Ankara to a football game in October. Observers dubbed the visits “football diplomacy”, and although some politicians say such informal meeting between the leaders of the two countries should not be taken seriously, experts believe that these contacts can play an important role in the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

Sargyasn said that Armenia was ready to establish normal relations with Turkey without preconditions. “The ball is in the Turkish court,” he said.

He is “deeply and sincerely convinced” that Armenia “must establish good relations with Turkey”, and this conviction did not develop after his election as president.

Sargsyan believes that “such experienced diplomacy as the Turkish one will assess the degree of sincerity” of Armenian authorities in the establishment of relations with Ankara without preconditions.

The president said talks with Turkey had “never discussed the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh and the recognition of Armenian genocide” in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. “We do not condition normalisation of relations between the two countries on Turkey's recognition of Armenian genocide and hope that the Turks do not consider the termination of recognition of genocide [by different countries] as such precondition”, he said.

At the same time, normalisation of relations with Turkey does not mean questioning the fact of genocide in 1915, the president said. “We regret millions of innocent victims and should do everything we can to prevent such tragedies in the future,” Sargsyan said.

“We may have made a mistake in our relations with Turkey”, and they will take a totally different turn, Sargsayan said. But “even if it is a failure”, Armenia will “come out of this process stronger because the international community will see” that Yerevan “is ready to establish relations with Turkey without preconditions”.

Erdogan said earlier that his country would not open its border with Armenia until its troops leave occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

“The Karabakh conflict and the occupation of Azerbaijani territories are the cause, and the closure of the border with Turkey is the effect. Unless the cause is eliminated, the effects will remain,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said the Turkish-Armenian border would not be opened unless the Nagorno-Karabakh problem was resolved.

“Turkey will not sign the final agreement with Armenia unless Azerbaijan and Armenia reach consensus on Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.

“We will prepare the infrastructure and do preliminary work, but this [the opening of the border] will depend entirely on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani problem. It has to be settled first,” the prime minister said.

Erdogan said his country had not and would not take steps that would be detrimental to the national interests of Azerbaijan.

Ankara believes that the issue may be resolved only within the framework of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, he said.

“Unless the Karabakh conflict is resolved, no peace in the region will be possible,” the prime minister said.

“Independence, calm and stability of Azerbaijan are as important to us as independence and stability of Turkey,” Erdogan said.




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