NATO Parliamentary Assembly pledges Ukraine support on path to joining alliance

NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Paolo Alli is confident that Ukraine will join NATO.

The NATO PA was sure that Ukraine would be able to join NATO and the Parliamentary Assembly would support it in this, Alli said at a joint press briefing with Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy in Kyiv on Monday.

"Ukraine's joining NATO is a strategic goal for the Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian nation" and it is "a hard-won objective," Parubiy said.

"Are our partners ready for the union with Ukraine? The events of the recent years confirm this. And these are not hollow statements, it is humanitarian, primarily medical aid to the Maidan, it is assistance to our reforms and steps for reforming the country, it is the most important aid to our army on the frontline, as well as our joint training in the International Peacekeeping and Security Center (Yavorivsky training grounds) and joint involvement in peacekeeping missions and security missions," Parubiy said.

The issue of Ukraine's hosting of a NATO Parliamentary Assembly session will be discussed in autumn this year and this session may take place in the spring of 2019, he said.

"As far as we know, this issue should be considered in autumn at one of the meetings of the Parliamentary Assembly committees. And we very much hope that a NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting may be possibly held here, in Kyiv, in the spring of 2019, as well as the latest one in Tbilisi, Georgia," Parubiy said.

In turn, Alli thanked Parubiy for the proposal to hold a NATO Parliamentary Assembly session in Ukraine.

Alli said it had been the holding of the NATO PA session in Ukraine, which the parties were discussing now, and he hoped that they would have an opportunity to arrive here as members of the Assembly's full composition and to hold its meeting here shortly.

The issue of Ukraine's joining NATO is not discussed, but the programs of cooperation between the alliance and Kyiv are being successfully promoted within six trustee funds, an official from the NATO division dealing with cooperation with Ukraine said at a press briefing on terms of anonymity earlier on June 29.