The Ukraine-NATO Council should not be a platform for discussions, but its main function should be to bring Ukraine to NATO membership, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Ihor Zhovkva said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"We are grateful for such a decision [the creation of the Ukraine-NATO Council]. This is really important. It will be formalized during the Vilnius summit. We are talking about the possibility of its meeting in Vilnius with the participation of the president, if he goes there. But there is a form and a content," he said.

But, the deputy head of the President's Office stressed, "it is very important not to lose the meaning behind the form."

"We are now studying in detail what the mandate of this Council will be, and our position is very simple. The Ukraine-NATO Council, if it is created and will work, should have the first and important function of bringing Ukraine into NATO membership. Gradually, when conditions develop for this, as we are now recording in bilateral declarations with a number of member states, but this should be its main task," Zhovkva said.

According to him, "if this is just a platform for discussions about the "open door", about some new formats that can still be invented in order to put certain artificial barriers for Ukraine, then, I'm afraid, such reformatting loses its meaningful meaning."

Zhovkva said that the Council's work regulations "are being discussed, as far as I know, at the level of allies. Ukraine cannot participate in this, because it is not a member of NATO, but it can and certainly will express its position."