Parliament Speaker:Ukraine's Entry To NATO's Action Plan Not Imply Automatic Membership

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's entry to NATO's membership action plan does not imply that the country will automatically become a member of the alliance, parliamentary chairman Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Friday.

Parliamen Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk
He pointed out there are some countries that have implemented NATO's membership action plan but have not become members of the alliance.

Yatsenynk said the stay of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine could be a factor determining Ukraine's future possible membership of the alliance.

"Ukraine's entry into the NATO will be linked to the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol (the port city in southern Ukraine). Thus, the controversial issue of Ukraine's future NATO membership should emerge until 2017, when the Russian fleet is supposed to leave the territory of Ukraine," Yatsenyuk said at a news conference.

According to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko traveled to Brussels on Friday and handed NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer a formal letter, signed by President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Parliamentary Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

The letter asks that Ukraine's bid to join NATO's membership action plan be considered at the alliance's summit in Bucharest, capital of Romania, in April this year.

NATO membership is a highly controversial issue in Ukraine.

Lawmakers from the Ukrainian Communist Party and the Party of Regions blocked the parliament's work on Friday, protesting the authorities' latest efforts to join NATO's membership action plan and demanding that Yatsenyuk recall his signature on the letter.

Source: Xinhua