President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree on annual national programs under the auspices of the Ukraine-NATO Commission. The document was published on Wednesday, February 24, on the website of the country’s president.
According to the decree, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should develop annual national partnership programs between Kiev and NATO. The document assumes an assessment of the results of the programs.
The Cabinet of Ministers is required to submit reports on the progress of program implementation at different periods of the planning year. They relate to different areas: political, economic, defense and military, resource, security, as well as legal issues.
“Each section should contain the strategic goal of reforms, goals, expected results and priority tasks with a planning period of five years <...> The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine considers, approves and submits, by January 31 of the planned year, a draft of the annual national program together with a draft of the corresponding decree of the President of Ukraine on consideration (to the President – Ed.) “, – follows from the document.
In early December last year, the Ukrainian authorities announced their intention to conduct more joint exercises with NATO on the territory of their country. As Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba emphasized, the country still intends to become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance.
In June, Ukraine was granted advanced partner status, which it said would allow Kiev to better engage with the alliance. NATO has argued that it recognizes Kiev’s significant contributions to the alliance’s missions and demonstrates a consistent commitment to partnership.
This makes Ukraine the sixth NATO enhanced partner, alongside Australia, Finland, Georgia, Jordan and Sweden.
After the coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014, the country’s new leadership abandoned its non-aligned status, and later enshrined in the constitution the desire to join NATO and the European Union as a foreign policy.
At the same time, the alliance does not have a single position on the republic’s membership. So, in October 2019, Hungary vetoed the joint declaration of the ambassadors of the North Atlantic Alliance in Ukraine.