Interfax-Ukraine
August 29, 2014
Ukraine plans to step back onto path towards NATO membership – PM Yatseniuk
The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has submitted a bill repealing the country’s non-bloc status to the Verkhovna Rada.
“In accordance with the decision adopted by the National Security and Defense Council, the government of Ukraine has submitted a bill that repeals the Ukrainian state’s non-bloc status and re-establishes Ukraine’s course towards membership in NATO to parliament for consideration,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said at a government session on Friday.
According to Yatseniuk, the law permits Ukraine to take decisions on membership of any other economic, political and military units as long as they don’t contradict the main aim of Ukraine – membership of the European Union.
He also said that after this law is adopted, Ukraine will be banned from being a member of the Customs Union, the Eurasian Union, or other similar so-called unions, which in fact are just “the Soviet Union under the name of the Russian Federation.”
“We ask the president of Ukraine and Ukrainian parliament to consider it [the bill] urgent, as it [has been deemed so] by the National Security and Defense Council,” the premier said.
====================================================================
Ukrinform
August 29, 2014
NATO not against Ukraine’s accession – Rasmussen
KYIV: NATO will respect and recognize Ukraine’s possible decision to cancel its non-aligned status and join this military-political alliance.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said this on Friday, a Ukrinform correspondent in Brussels reported.
“We fully respect Ukraine’s decisions as regards Ukraine’s security policy and alliance affiliation… Ukraine will become a member of NATO provided, of course, that Ukraine so wishes and provided that Ukraine fulfills the necessary criteria,” he said, recalling the decision taken at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008.
As reported, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said that the Ukrainian government had submitted for consideration by parliament a draft law cancelling the neutral status of the Ukrainian state and resuming Ukraine’s course towards NATO membership.
Source