Kiev must modernize army before joining NATO: FM
Iran Press TV
Tue Mar 3, 2015 9:25AM
The Ukrainian foreign minister says Kiev needs to modernize its military and carry out reforms to meet higher standards before it takes steps towards joining NATO.
'As concerns NATO, we need to modernize Ukraine, bringing its possibilities in ensuring security and its defense sectors to higher standards, the standards of NATO. After carrying out these reforms, we will decide what will be the next move towards NATO,' Pavlo Klimkin said at a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pledged to seek NATO membership over the allegation that Moscow supports pro-Russian forces in Ukraine's restive east. Russia rejects the accusation.
Last December, Ukrainian lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to renounce Kiev's non-aligned status and backed a move towards NATO membership.
Addressing the MPs before the vote, Klimkin said Ukraine was determined to turn to Europe and the West.
'This will lead to integration in the European and the Euro-Atlantic space,' he said.
Meanwhile, Russia has warned that Ukraine joining the Western military alliance would only boost tensions around the crisis in the east.
'It will only escalate the confrontation and creates the illusion that it is possible to resolve Ukraine's deep internal crisis by passing such laws,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last December.
Arms supply from US, other countries
In an interview with Japan's Nikkei newspaper, Klimkin said Ukraine expects to receive arms supply not only from the US, but also from other countries.
It is 'critically important' to increase the capability of Ukrainian military forces, the minister said, adding, "We need additional defensive weapons.'
Last week, Oleg Gladkovsky, the first deputy chief of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said that Kiev signed contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars on exports and imports of weapons at the IDEX-2015 exhibition in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.
Gladkovsky said the majority of the contracts have been reached with US companies, but did not provide further details.
Kiev's bid to modernize Ukraine's military equipment comes amid escalating tensions in the country's volatile east.
The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine have been hit by deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April last year to crush pro-Russians there.
In May 2014, the situation in the two flashpoint regions started to worsen as residents overwhelmingly voted for independence from Ukraine in referendums.
The conflict has taken a heavy toll on thousands of people.
AR/GHN/HMV
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