NATO & Ukraine: Doors Remain Open...but not wide

NATO doors are always open to Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Wednesday during his three-day trip to the country.

There should be no deadlines in this matter, he said at the end of a Ukraine-NATO Commission meeting.

We should focus on the process itself, not set any schedules or dates in terms of months or years, the secretary general said, responding to a question about the possibility of Ukraine's admission to NATO in 2008. He added that he could not put a timeline on the process.

The most important thing is that Ukraine is ready to carry out essential reform, he said, promising alliance support.

Obtained from here.

Then contrasted with what the Ukrainians are saying:

Ukraine has a real chance to become a NATO member in 2008, Foreign Ministry Roving Ambassador Konstiantin Morozov said during a round table on Ukraine's Place in NATO, organized by the Democratic Initiatives Fund and Ukraine-NATO Public League, the Cabinet's press service.

And the reasoning for Yuschenko wanting to be a part of the EU and NATO:

Euro-Atlantic integration, with a focus on joining NATO, is a priority for both foreign and domestic policy in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Wednesday.

Yushchenko said Ukraine's move towards NATO and the European Union must be in line with the country's interests in the context of the current military and political situation.

"Since NATO is a guarantor of stability in Europe, Ukraine is ready for fully-fledged membership in theses organizations [NATO and EU]," he said.

Yushchenko spoke Wednesday at the joint session of the NATO North-Atlantic Council and the Ukrainian Council of National Security and Defense.

Basically, Ukraine wants to get the same benefits that Poland has recieved from being a part of NATO and the European Union. Economic stability. Protection from aggressive neighbors. Guarantees. The ability to attract foreign capital. etc.

Ukraine has a lot further to go than Poland did. Being a part of the Soviet Union and the extremely difficult times of the 1990s has hobbled far more than it did Poland. In the 1960s or 1970s, who would have thought that being a part of the Soviet Union would make a child nation like Ukraine so...well...broken compared to the Warsaw Pact countries. There was a time when the Soviets restricted Poles from moving into the country. Now the reverse is true...especially for Russians. Boggle that reversal.