NATO has not taken a single step since 2008 towards offering Ukraine MAP - Kuleba

He said this at a joint press conference with OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid in Kyiv on Wednesday, May 26, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Of course, we are grateful to our NATO partners for their continued confirmation of the open door policy based on the 2008 Bucharest Summit, but 13 years have passed since then and not a single step has been taken to implement that decision," Kuleba said.

He added that "Ukraine is sometimes criticized for implementing reforms too slowly, but what can then be said about the adoption and implementation of the Alliance's decisions that have been gathering dust for 13 years."

Kuleba stressed that it was important to prevent the open door policy from turning into a "policy of giving nothing but promises." He said he was convinced that it was difficult to imagine a better and more important time than 2021 for granting the Membership Action Plan to Ukraine.

"We are talking openly about this with our NATO partners, and I think it is time to talk openly with Ukrainian society so that they clearly realize that the ball is not always in Ukraine's court when it comes to Euro-Atlantic integration. And we are waiting for a pass from the Alliance," Kuleba said.

He also stressed that he understood NATO's desire to hold a closed summit in June, but did not understand the expediency of holding a closed summit amid Russian aggression.

"To be honest, we absolutely do not understand how a closed NATO summit can be held against the background of the Russian Federation's aggressive actions against Ukraine in the Black Sea region and against the Alliance itself. I mean the latest events, the latest results of the investigation in the Czech Republic. We cannot understand this. How can they not invite Ukraine? How can they not find a format for [Ukraine's] participation in this year's summit?" Kuleba said.

During the 2008 Bucharest Summit, NATO heads of state and government made a political decision that Ukraine and Georgia would be members of NATO and that the provision of a MAP should be a step in this direction.

Ukraine expressed hope that the MAP could be granted during the NATO summit to be held in Brussels on June 14.

However, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said after her visit to Brussels on May 20 that "we understand that this year's summit is not the summit where the decision on the MAP will be made."

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