Ukraine #39;s complicated path to NATO membership
Ukrainian public opinion on NATO membership remained low, according to numerous independent polls conducted between 2005 and 2013. Just months before the start of the revolution in Ukraine...
By: euronews (in English)
Continue reading here:
#39;Ukraine joining NATO could trigger all-out war #39;
In other developments in Ukraine - the country #39;s steadily paving its way towards NATO membership. Parliament in Kiev has voted to drop the law which forbids the country from joining any military...
By: RT
Continued here:
MOSCOW In a sign of Ukraines hardening attitude toward Russia, Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to remove a legal barrier to joining the NATO defense alliance.
The move provoked an angry response from Russia, even though NATO shows few signs of accepting Ukraine as a member anytime soon. But this years bloody conflict in Ukraines east has altered the countrys feelings about the Western alliance. A plurality of Ukrainians now favor joining NATO, a stark change from recent years when just a small fraction did.
Ukraines decision comes as Russia struggles with a weakened ruble and growing concerns about economic instability.
The vote in Ukraines parliament had no immediate practical effect on the countrys relationship with NATO. But it ended Ukraines nonaligned status, which was adopted as a way of reassuring Russia that its neighbor would not join NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin cited his fear of Ukraines joining NATO as a reason Russia annexed Crimea in March.
The proposal to eliminate nonaligned status passed easily, with 303 of the Ukrainian parliaments 450 lawmakers in support. After the vote, legislators stood up and applauded.
Finally, we corrected a mistake. 303 votes and Ukraines nonaligned status is out, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. There is no alternative to Euro-Atlantic integration. Glory to Ukraine!
Russian leaders reacted immediately with harsh denunciations, warning Ukraine and NATO that no good could come of the decision.
This is counterproductive and only escalates confrontations and creates an illusion that by adopting such laws it might be possible to settle a profound domestic crisis in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.
He called for dialogue inside Ukraine, where Russian-supported rebels in the east have waged a war that has claimed more than 4,700 lives.
A day earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned on his Facebook page that application for membership in NATO would turn Ukraine into a potential military adversary for Russia.
Continued here:
Ukraine parliament votes to take step toward NATO, angering Russia
Washington The Ukraine parliaments vote Tuesday to nullify the countrys non-aligned status is largely a symbolic gesture and does not mean Ukraine will seek NATO membership any time soon.
What the vote does promise is further ratcheting up of tensions between Ukraine and Russia, and between Western leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin who considers Ukraine an inseparable piece of Russias backyard, and Ukrainian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization a red line.
The vote represents one step toward fulfilling all criteria of membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.Perhaps the biggest impact of the vote will be to stir up waters that had begun to calm concerning embattled eastern Ukraine, some Russia analysts say. The vote came just hours after new talks were announced for this week aimed at ending Ukraines conflict with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The real question is, why did this vote happen now, when the situation in eastern Ukraine is relatively calm? says Paul Saunders, director of the US-Russian relations program at the Center for the National Interest in Washington.
The Ukrainian government probably felt a little emboldened to act as a result of the dire signs from Moscow concerning the Russian economy, Mr. Saunders says. But he adds that economic considerations are not likely to moderate Russias reaction to the parliamentary vote.
From Moscows perspective this is clearly a provocative and inflammatory step, he says. Indeed, on Tuesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the vote would have extremely negative consequences, while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Facebook page that the vote is tantamount to an application to join NATO.
However, the parliamentary vote is highly symbolic and has little concrete impact. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko has said a decision to seek NATO membership would come from the Ukrainian people in a referendum vote, and that such a referendum would not take place before the end of the decade.
But the parliamentary votewill add to keeping tensions alive because it feeds the perceptions that each side in the larger Ukraine-Russia conflict has about the other, Saunders says.
If were objective about it, how could the Kremlin annex Crimea and not expect a vote like this? he says. On the other hand, no one should be surprised by the Russian response. No leader, he adds, would want to see a neighboring country move toward joining what people in his country perceive to be a hostile military alliance.
Events in Ukraine like the parliamentary vote are also part of what will be a sustained period of unpredictable tensions between Russia and the West, other analysts say.
View post:
Ukraine pokes Russia, makes move toward NATO. Was it really necessary? (+video)
Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's president, was unapologetic about the move, saying that Ukraine had "no alternative to Euro-Atlantic integration".
Nato is unlikely to entertain making Ukraine a member any time soon, but the lifting of Kiev's restriction on joining security blocs clears the way for an accession at a later date.
MPs made clear the law was adopted in response to the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea and its intervention in the conflict in the east of the country.
Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine's foreign minister, told the parliament that "in the conditions of the current aggression against Ukraine, this law opens for us new mechanisms".
Ukraine's government veered towards a pro-western course after Mr Poroshenko was elected in May, following the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-leaning former president who fled to Russia after a popular uprising against his rule.
Government forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine since April. A shaky ceasefire has largely held in recent weeks and peace talks are expected to tale place in Minsk, Belarus, on Wednesday and Friday.
The Kremlin has long seen Nato expansion in eastern Europe as a deliberate attempt to encircle Russia. Four countries bordering it have joined the bloc since the Soviet collapse Poland in 1999 and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 2004.
Speaking at his annual press conference in Moscow last week, Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, said that enlargement of the alliance had built a new, "virtual" Berlin Wall around his country.
Arseny Yatsenuk, Ukraine's prime minister, visited Nato headquarters in Brussels earlier this month. Jens Stoltenberg, the bloc's secretary general, told him that Ukraine and Nato were "able to develop our partnership".
A spokesman for the alliance said on Tuesday: "Our door is open and Ukraine will become a member of Nato if it so requests and fulfils the standards and adheres to the necessary principles."
Originally posted here:
Ukraines Tuesday vote to drop its nonaligned status -- a prerequisite for joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- is threatening to further aggravate tensions with Russia. But its not likely well see Ukraine join NATO anytime soon, analysts say.
It is difficult to see much sentiment within NATO now to put Ukraine on a membership, Steven Pifer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said via email. But he acknowledged Ukraines small step toward a NATO bid was understandable given Russias aggression over the past year.
Ukraine previously made a bid to join NATO in 2008 under then-president Viktor Yushchenko. Yushchenkos plan received support from the U.S. initially, but the bid went nowhere after France and Germany opposed it amid concerns the move would disrupt the balance of power between Russia and European countries. Those concerns are even more palpable now following Russias annexation of Crimea in March and military support for rebels in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian membership in the military alliance could trigger a wider conflict with Moscow, given NATOs principle of collective self-defense.
But ironically, Russian President Vladimir Putins moves in Ukraine -- stemming from his efforts to try to incorporate the country into Moscows sphere of influence in the region and away from the West -- seems to have pushed Ukrainians toward embracing the idea of NATO membership even more. A Gallup poll found prior to the crisis, in 2013, 20 percent of respondents regarded NATO as a force of protection for Ukraine. In 2014, that figure rose to 36 percent. Separately, a November survey by the Ukrainian polling firm Rating Sociological Group found a slight majority of Ukrainians -- 51 percent --expressed support for joining NATO, up from 40 percent in April.
Tuesday's vote "is a direct result of the Kremlin's 10 months of increasingly overt aggression against the country," said John Herbst, director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council and also former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. "A large majority of Ukrainians now understand tha the policies of Mr. Putin are very dangerous for Ukraine. This is a sign they need to find some way to withstand the Kremlin's aggression."
Russia has vociferously opposed Ukrainian membership in NATO, and Tuesday's overwhelming 302-8 vote to drop Ukraines neutral status provoked outrage in Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the move would escalate the confrontation between Kiev and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, the Tass news agency reported.
But Yury Barmin, an independent Russian analyst based in Abu Dhabi, said he didnt think Russia would ramp up aggression at the border. So far its involvement with Ukraine has been very painful for Russia economically, and both the EU and U.S. are ready to impose more sanctions, he said. The [ruble] crash last week showed how vulnerable the Russian economy is, so I believe Vladimir Putin will choose not to provoke any more sanctions at this point.
Pifer said Ukraine could consider putting off a bid for NATO membership for a certain amount of time as part of a settlement deal with Russia. That could be a key element, and [Kiev] would not be giving up much, in view of attitudes within the alliance, he said.
But, he added, Moscow unfortunately has shown little sign of interest in reaching a settlement, apparently preferring to create a frozen [or not-so-frozen] conflict as a means to pressure [Kiev]."
Herbst said while he couldn't predict what Putin's response to the vote might be, the president's goal of destablizing Ukraine to the point where Kiev would prove unable to establish a pro-EU foreign policy is looking trickier to achieve. "Putin realizes that his international position today is much worse than it was six months ago," he said. "And he wants to avoid worsening that."
Read the original post:
Ukraine Inches Toward NATO, But Membership Not Likely Anytime Soon, Analysts Say
Ukraines parliament backed a proposal to cancel the countrys non-aligned status, a decision Russia denounced as a dangerous step toward seeking membership of NATO.
The legislation put forward by President Petro Poroshenko was supported yesterday by 303 of 357 lawmakers in the chamber, hours after the announcement of fresh talks to try to end the conflict with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. The bill will help Ukraine as it seeks to achieve all criteria of membership for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told parliament.
The vote in Ukraine is counter-productive and will increase confrontation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow yesterday. It will have extremely negative consequences and amounts to an application to join NATO, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Facebook.
The decision follows an announcement that the Ukraine Contact Group will meet Dec. 24 and Dec. 26 in Minsk, Belarus, after a phone call on Monday between Poroshenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande. A two-week truce has tempered the bloodshed in a conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April in fighting between government forces and separatists in Ukraines Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Ending Ukraines non-aligned status is the choice of the Ukrainian people, Klimkin wrote on Twitter after the vote. This is the choice for freedom and security.
Poroshenko said in November that Ukraine would hold a referendum on seeking NATO membership at the end of this decade after it had completed real policy changes. Germany and France have signaled that they are opposed to Ukraine joining the 28-member alliance because of concerns that this will inflame tensions with Russia.
NATO should be open to new members, Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz told reporters in Warsaw yesterday. Its up to Ukraine to decide whether they want to join.
The contact group, which has representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, last met in September to try to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The four leaders emphasized the need to fulfill agreements made at those talks, including withdrawal of troops and heavy armament, as well as immediate liberation of all prisoners, Poroshenko said in a statement on his website.
The main task at the moment is to stop the violence, Alexei Panin, deputy director of the Center for Political Information, a Moscow-based research group, said by phone. The confrontation may evolve into a frozen conflict that could encourage the European Union to lift sanctions against Russia by mid-2015, though U.S. measures imposed over the crisis will remain, he said.
Defense spending is Ukraines top priority, Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko told parliament yesterday as she presented the governments draft 2015 budget for what she called the robbed and fighting country. Ukraine is in its most difficult situation since independence, she said.
Excerpt from:
Ukraine Parliament Votes to End Non-Aligned Status in NATO Move
Support to NATO #39;s priorities - Joint ISR
The NCI Agency played an important enabling role in the largest ever test of NATO #39;s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities that beg...
By: nciagency
Here is the original post:
RUSSIA PREPARES FOR WAR - Putin Orders Snap Military Drills on NATO Border
SUBSCRIBE to ELITE NWO for Latest on NEW COLD WAR 2.0 / NEW WORLD ORDER / ILLUMINATI / BUILD UP TO WW3 / CURRENCY WARS http://www.youtube.com/EliteNWOAgenda ...
By: Elite NWO Agenda
Continued here:
RUSSIA PREPARES FOR WAR - Putin Orders Snap Military Drills on NATO Border - Video
NATO I Super TNT petarde- TEST i PREGLEDAVANJE
Nato je jako jako jaka petarda. Ima 5 grama baruta kao MegattroN!!! Ispriavam se sto sam rekao da je dole barut nije barut nego gips. Zurio sam se pa sam pogrijeio.
By: Pardina JB
More here:
Joseph Stalin honoured in NATO Country (Holland) !
CCCP Dictator Stalin honoured in Holland/ Netherlands Warsaw Pact vs NATO The Hague/ City of Justice International Court of Justice The Hague NATO member Holland/ The netherlands.
By: wunderkammerchannel
Read the rest here:
Should NATO defend Ukraine if Russia attacks? Anthony Holmes
I think NATO should help Ukraine if Russia attacks because Ukraine #39;s leader had just fled into Russia because he was scared of Russia starting a war. NATO shouldn #39;t help Ukraine if Russia attacks...
By: Paul Bogush
See the original post here:
Should NATO defend Ukraine if Russia attacks? Anthony Holmes - Video
Ukraine News Dec 22-Finland and France say NO to NATO
1) Dnipropetrovsk authorities stop convoy headed for Donbass 2) Rossiya Segodnya opens memorial plague to honor of Andrei Stenin 3) Finnish Prime Minister not ready for possible NATO ...
By: Marine1063
Original post:
Ukraine News Dec 22-Finland and France say NO to NATO - Video
MOSCOW In a sign of Ukraines hardening attitude toward Russia, Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to remove a legal barrier to joining the NATO defense alliance.
The move swiftly provoked an angry response from Russia, even though NATO itself shows few signs of accepting Ukraine as a member any time soon. But this years bloody conflict in Ukraines east has shifted the countrys feelings about the value of the Western alliance. A plurality of Ukrainians now favor joining NATO, a stark change from recent years when just a small fraction did.
Ukraines decision comes as Russia struggles with a weakened ruble and growing concerns about economic instability.
The vote in Ukraines parliament had no immediate practical effect on the countrys relationship with NATO. But it ended Ukraines non-aligned status, put into place as a way of reassuring Russia that its neighbor would not join NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin cited his fear of Ukraines joining NATO as a reason he annexed Crimea in March.
The proposal to eliminate non-aligned status passed easily, with 303 of the Ukrainian parliaments 450 lawmakers in support. After the vote, legislators stood up and applauded.
Finally we corrected a mistake. 303 votes and Ukraines non-aligned status is out, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. There is no alternative to Euro-Atlantic integration. Glory to Ukraine!
Russian leaders reacted immediately with harsh denunciations, warning Ukraine and NATO that no good could come of the decision.
This is counterproductive and only escalates confrontations and creates an illusion that by adopting such laws it might be possible to settle a profound domestic crisis in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow, Interfax reported.
He called instead for dialogue inside Ukraine, where Russian-supported rebels in the east have waged a war that has claimed more than 4,700 lives.
A day earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned on his Facebook page that application for membership in NATO would turn Ukraine into a potential military adversary for Russia.
Read the original:
Ukraine votes to take step toward NATO, immediately angering Russia
Last winter's revolution in Kiev upset Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to enlist Ukraine in a new, Kremlin-led bloc that could rival both Nato and the European Union.
And Moscow had set Kiev's exclusion from all military blocs as a condition for any deal on ending the pro-Russian uprising that has killed 4,700 in the eastern Ukrainian rust belt in the past eight months.
Putin's view of Nato as modern Russia's biggest threat has only been reinforced by this year's dramatic spike in East-West tensions over Ukraine.
"In essence, an application for Nato membership will turn Ukraine into a potential military opponent for Russia," Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned in a Facebook post on Monday.
He said that Ukraine's rejection of neutrality and a new Russian sanctions law that US President Barack Obama signed on Friday "will both have very negative consequences".
"And our country will have to respond to them," Medvedev added.
Perhaps the most immediate threat will be to delicate peace talks this week in the Belarussian capital Minsk that Poroshenko announced on Monday.
Poroshenko said the deal for Kiev and rebel negotiators to meet in the presence of Russian and European envoys on Wednesday and Friday was struck during a joint call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande the West's top mediators on Ukraine.
The last two rounds of Minsk consultations in September produced a truce and the outlines of a broader peace agreement that gave the two separatist regions partial self-rule for three years within a united Ukraine.
A pro-Russian separatist stands guard near Donetsk's Sergey Prokofiev International Airport (Reuters)
Read this article:
KIEV: Ukraine took a historic step toward NATO on Tuesday (Dec 23) in a parliamentary vote that stoked Russia's anger ahead of talks on ending the ex-Soviet state's separatist war. Lawmakers in the government-controlled chamber overwhelmingly adopted a bill dropping Ukraine's non-aligned status - a classification given to states such as Switzerland that refuse to join military alliances and thus play no part in wars.
President Petro Poroshenko had vowed to put Ukraine under Western military protection after winning an election called in the wake of the February ouster in Kiev of a Moscow-backed president. "Ukraine's fight for its independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty has turned into a decisive factor in our relations with the world," Poroshenko told foreign ambassadors in Kiev on Monday night.
Ukraine assumed neutrality under strong Russian pressure in 2010. It had sought NATO membership in the early post-Soviet era but - its once-mighty army in ruins and riven by corruption - was never viewed as a serious candidate.
Last winter's revolution in Kiev upset Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to enlist Ukraine in a new bloc he was forging in order to counterbalance NATO and the European Union. And Moscow had set Kiev's exclusion from all military blocs as a condition for any deal on ending the pro-Russian uprising that has killed 4,700 in the eastern Ukrainian rustbelt in the past eight months.
Putin's view of NATO as modern Russia's biggest threat has only been reinforced by this year's dramatic spike in East-West tensions over Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded that Kiev "put an end to confrontation" and stop adopting "absolutely counterproductive" measures that only stoked tensions between the two sides.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said even more bluntly that "in essence, an application for NATO membership will turn Ukraine into a potential military opponent for Russia". Medvedev warned that Ukraine's rejection of neutrality and a new Russian sanctions law that US President Barack Obama signed on Friday "will both have very negative consequences". "And our country will have to respond to them," he wrote in a Facebook post.
Perhaps the most immediate threat will be to delicate peace talks this week in the Belarussian capital Minsk that Poroshenko announced on Monday. Poroshenko said the deal for Kiev and rebel negotiators to meet in the presence of Russian and European envoys on Wednesday and Friday was struck during a joint call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande - the West's top mediators on Ukraine.
REBELS NON-COMMITTAL
The last two rounds of Minsk consultations in September produced a truce and the outlines of a broader peace agreement that gave the two separatist regions partial self-rule for three years within a united Ukraine. But the deals were followed by more fighting that killed at least 1,300 people. The insurgents' decision to stage their own leadership polls in violation of the Minsk rules effectively ended political talks between the two sides.
A new meeting in Minsk had been hampered by Kiev's refusal to discuss lifting last month's suspension of social security and other benefit payments to the rebel-run districts. Ukraine's leaders suspect the money is being stolen by militias in the Russian-speaking Lugansk and Donetsk regions and used to finance their war.
See original here:
KIEV - Ukraine took a historic step towards NATO on Tuesday in a parliamentary vote that stoked Russia's anger ahead of talks on ending the ex-Soviet state's separatist war.
Lawmakers in the government-controlled chamber overwhelmingly adopted a bill dropping Ukraine's non-aligned status - a classification given to states such as Switzerland that refuse to join military alliances and thus play no part in wars.
President Petro Poroshenko had vowed to put Ukraine under Western military protection after winning an election called in the wake of the February ouster in Kiev of a Moscow-backed president.
"Ukraine's fight for its independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty has turned into a decisive factor in our relations with the world," Poroshenko told foreign ambassadors in Kiev on Monday night.
"European and Euro-Atlantic integrations - that is Ukraine's XX course," Poroshenko tweeted moments after the 303-8 vote.
Ukraine assumed neutrality under strong Russian pressure in 2010. It had sought NATO membership in the early post-Soviet era but - its once-mighty army in ruins and riven by corruption - was never viewed as a serious candidate.
Last winter's revolution in Kiev upset Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to enlist Ukraine in a new bloc he was forging in order to counterbalance NATO and the European Union.
And Moscow had set Kiev's exclusion from all military blocs as a condition for any deal on ending the pro-Russian uprising that has killed 4,700 in the eastern Ukrainian rustbelt in the past eight months.
Putin's view of NATO as modern Russia's biggest threat has only been reinforced by this year's dramatic spike in East-West tensions over Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded that Kiev "put an end to confrontation" and stop adopting "absolutely counterproductive" measures that only stoked tensions between the twos ids.
The rest is here:
KIEV, Ukraine, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Ukraine's Parliament voted Tuesday to abolish its neutral, non-aligned status and direct its attention to future NATO membership.
It voted, 303 to 8, to eliminate the status, which has kept the country from entering military alliances, adopted under pressure from Russia in 2010. Prior to the vote, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said the change "will lead to integration in the European and the Euro-Atlantic space" and away from Russian influence.
President Petro Poroshenko has said a better assimilation with the West is a Ukrainian priority, and NATO membership is a goal, although not an immediate one. Speaking to foreign ambassadors Monday, Poroshenko said Ukraine's "fight for its independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty has turned into a decisive factor in our relations with the world."
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a Facebook post that the Ukrainian refutation of neutrality would have "negative consequences," adding NATO membership for Ukraine would turn the country into a "potential military adversary of Russia."
Andrei Kelin, Russian representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the body overseeing peace negotiations between Kiev and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, told Russia's Interfax news agency Moscow would "negatively respond" to Ukraine's attempts to join NATO.
Related UPI Stories
2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
Photos: The Year in Review
Notable deaths of 2014
2014: The Year in Fashion
Continue reading here:
Former NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Former NATO Secretary General, addresses the plenary sitting of the 60th Annual Session of the NATO PA.
By: NATOPA 2014
See original here:
Crafting traditional Afghan instruments (NATO and Afghanistan)
Two brothers, getting on in years, make rubabs, a traditional Afghan stringed instrument. They learned the craft from their father and are passing it on to t...
By: NATO
View original post here:
Crafting traditional Afghan instruments (NATO and Afghanistan) - Video