10:39 22.01.2020

Zahorodniuk considers achieving military criteria for NATO membership as his main objective

2 min read
Zahorodniuk considers achieving military criteria for NATO membership as his main objective

Zahorodniuk considers achieving military criteria for NATO membership as his main objective

KYIV. Jan 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Zahorodniuk has said that he considers his main task in the current position to achieve the military criteria for NATO membership and to do everything so that Ukraine receives the status of a member of the NATO Enhanced Opportunity Program.

"Finally, cooperation has become practical. Before that, we often heard just political slogans, but nothing happened in reality. We made it clear that we were not interested in political slogans. Switching to practical mode is something that matters. My main task is to achieve military membership criteria and do everything in order to obtain the status of a member of the NATO Enhanced Opportunity Program," Zahorodniuk said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"We have every chance to get it. In fact, it will already be a purely political issue," the minister added.

Zahorodniuk said that in January 2020, the first roadmaps for the transition of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to NATO standards is to begin.

"In Brussels, we had systemic meetings where we agreed on roadmaps for transition to Alliance standards. The way the reform should be implemented in close cooperation with NATO so that they understand our actions and fully support them - these roadmaps have been agreed and supported. First roadmaps will be ready in January, because there are several hundred standards there," said the minister.

He specified that the roadmap would contain instructions on the types and different kinds of troops, because they all are in completely different states. "The roadmap will include types and separate kinds of troops, because their state is completely different. Some of them are ready to undergo certification tomorrow, some of them have already passed it (for example, in the Joint Forces Operation), and some of them are required to build everything from the very beginning," said Zahorodniuk.

According to him, the Naval Forces of Ukraine now, in fact, meet the criteria for membership in the Alliance, since many of the personnel have undergone service and training in NATO structures.

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