Ukrainian foreign minister: Ukraine slowed down its pace of approaching NATO

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Because of protracted internal political discussions, Ukraine slowed down its pace of approaching to NATO, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk said in an interview to Delo (Ukraine) issued on January 15. “After the new government led by Yanukovich was formed, it turned out that the president and the prime minister share common strategic goals for entering NATO, but differ on time limits for it,” he noted.

Speaking on prospects of holding a referendum in Ukraine on entering NATO, Boris Tarasyuk said: “The idea of the NATO referendum is contained by the documents called the National Unity Universal. I am not a proponent of the referendum. But if the political forces see it necessary, so, we should prepare for it. Not to stage a provocation, but to help a citizen and society learn what is NATO and how the possible membership can influence upon conditions of the citizen. For this aim, an effective information campaign should be held. It was passed in 2004 through 2007. Public opinion polls say, half of the population has no sufficient information on NATO. Only after we inform society sufficiently, the referendum can be held.”

As REGNUM reported earlier, collection of signatures for holding the national referendum was held since October 2005 to March 2006. Overall, 4,664,902 Ukrainian citizens signed the initiative to hold the referendum with two questions: “Do you agree that Ukraine becomes a NATO member?” and “Do you support Ukraine’s participation in the Joint Economic Space together with the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Belarus, in accordance with the Treaty on Establishing the Joint Economic Space signed on September 19, 2003?” According to Head of the Ukrainian Central Election Commission Yaroslav Davidovich, 224,509 from 4,656,182 collected signatures were pronounced void under various reasons.