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NATO offering carrot to ex-Soviet states - analyst
MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti)
20:1717/11/2009
The creation of a Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian peacekeeping brigade is
an attempt by the West to woo former post-Soviet countries while not
formally admitting them to NATO, a Russian analyst said Tuesday.
The Ukrainian, Polish and Lithuanian defense ministers on Monday
signed a letter stating their plans to form a joint peacekeeping
brigade, LitPolUkrBrig.
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine,
said "the Europeans and Americans do not want to alienate Ukraine,
Georgia and other countries, and they are looking for options intended
to symbolize engagement" now that the issue of their admission to NATO
has been frozen.
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Stanislaw Komorowski annouced the
creation of a joint brigade at the seventh Informal High-Level
NATO-Ukraine consultations with the participation of defense ministers
and other senior officials from Ukraine and NATO countries.
"We have signed a letter spelling out our plans to form a
Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian brigade. Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa
Jukneviciene, Polish Defense Minister Stanislaw Komarowski and I have
signed it," Ukraine's acting defense minister, Valeriy Ivaschenko,
told the media in Brussels.
Media reports said other countries were free to join the trilateral agreement.
"It is a kind of military analogue of Eastern Partnership in the trade
and economic sphere," Lukyanov said. "This brigade is an attempt to
show, 'we cannot admit you to NATO, but we remember you.'"
"Such organizations tie the Ukrainian elite even closer to all sorts
of Euro-Atlantic structures," he said.
Ukraine has been pursuing NATO membership since pro-Western Yushchenko
was inaugurated in January 2005.
Ukraine and Georgia's NATO bids were strongly backed by the
administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, but were turned down
due to pressure from Germany and France at a 2008 NATO summit in
Bucharest.
However, NATO has stated that the two countries will join at an
unspecified date in the future.
Both countries have also been included in the alliance's Partnership
for Peace program, aimed at allowing "partner countries to build up an
individual relationship with NATO, choosing their own priorities for
cooperation."
MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti)
20:1717/11/2009
The creation of a Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian peacekeeping brigade is
an attempt by the West to woo former post-Soviet countries while not
formally admitting them to NATO, a Russian analyst said Tuesday.
The Ukrainian, Polish and Lithuanian defense ministers on Monday
signed a letter stating their plans to form a joint peacekeeping
brigade, LitPolUkrBrig.
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine,
said "the Europeans and Americans do not want to alienate Ukraine,
Georgia and other countries, and they are looking for options intended
to symbolize engagement" now that the issue of their admission to NATO
has been frozen.
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Stanislaw Komorowski annouced the
creation of a joint brigade at the seventh Informal High-Level
NATO-Ukraine consultations with the participation of defense ministers
and other senior officials from Ukraine and NATO countries.
"We have signed a letter spelling out our plans to form a
Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian brigade. Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa
Jukneviciene, Polish Defense Minister Stanislaw Komarowski and I have
signed it," Ukraine's acting defense minister, Valeriy Ivaschenko,
told the media in Brussels.
Media reports said other countries were free to join the trilateral agreement.
"It is a kind of military analogue of Eastern Partnership in the trade
and economic sphere," Lukyanov said. "This brigade is an attempt to
show, 'we cannot admit you to NATO, but we remember you.'"
"Such organizations tie the Ukrainian elite even closer to all sorts
of Euro-Atlantic structures," he said.
Ukraine has been pursuing NATO membership since pro-Western Yushchenko
was inaugurated in January 2005.
Ukraine and Georgia's NATO bids were strongly backed by the
administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, but were turned down
due to pressure from Germany and France at a 2008 NATO summit in
Bucharest.
However, NATO has stated that the two countries will join at an
unspecified date in the future.
Both countries have also been included in the alliance's Partnership
for Peace program, aimed at allowing "partner countries to build up an
individual relationship with NATO, choosing their own priorities for
cooperation."