NATO should grant Ukraine road map for membership - Stefanishyna

13.04.2021 12:57

Ukrinform

The North Atlantic Alliance should begin consultations on granting Ukraine a Membership Action Plan (MAP), Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishyna.

According to Ukrinform, she wrote this in her column on Foreign Policy's website.

"In light of Ukraine's institutional and political transformation, it is past time for NATO leaders to begin consultations to chart a path to membership, as they pledged in 2008," she said.

According to Stefanishyna, Ukraine has become irreversibly democratic and delivered on reforms in strategic spheres compared to 2008, when it was denied a MAP at the NATO summit in Bucharest.

She also stressed that the common goal for Ukraine and NATO was to confront their opponents in the region - authoritarianism and aggression.

"There is no better place to start than supporting Ukraine's efforts to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank by moving forward with its road map to membership," she added.

Stefanishyna noted that the world has changed radically and new threats have emerged since NATO was founded over 70 years ago.

"But the main frontier that the alliance defends — democracy — has not changed, and it is shared between Ukraine and NATO. Launching negotiations to grant Ukraine a membership action plan will strengthen it," she added.