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Russia not to hamper Ukraine's accession into NATO

Other News Materials 22 December 2006 15:06 (UTC +04:00)

(ForUm) - Vice PM, Defense Minister of Russia Sergey Ivanov considers that if the Ukrainian people wants to enter NATO, nobody can impede it. Ivanov told in an interview to Trud Russian newspaper.

As for Ukraine's accession into NATO, we realize that every state, every people have a right to determine its way of development. If political authorities wants to fill up North Atlantic ranks, and if the Ukrainian people support this idea, then who can prevent them from this? But as far as I know only 20% of population support Ukraine's accession into NATO, Ivanov said.

He underlined that there are close relations between Ukraine and Russia and no other development of relations is expected despite views of the Ukrainian political elite.

I want to mention that despite the existing problems concerning stationing of RF BSF on the Ukrainian territory we can observe a certain increase of mutual understanding, Ivanov underlined, reports Trend.

Normative and legal base of military and military-technical cooperation is being improved. The questions on extension of arming and military equipment resources and on cooperation on utilization of ammunition and components of rocket oil are considered. We carry out the development of military-scientific programs together. Contacts on land and sappers, services of security frights and aviation are on regular work, he added.

Ivanov noted that command-staff trainings with administrative department and alert forces of antiaircraft defense are executed annually. According to him shooting trainings of zenith rocket systems of medium and long range of air forces, carried out this year on the Russian military range Telemba, became one of the examples of the practical interrelation.

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