Diplomatic Club: meeting with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
At the invitation of the Open Ukraine Foundation and Victor Pinchuk Foundation, on June 17, 2008 Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO Secretary General, was the invited guest of the Diplomatic Club meeting. At the informal meeting participants discussed the tasks and priorities of the Alliance development, and also Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic outlook. It was emphasized that Ukraine has actively participated in many NATO operations and that the intense dialogue between Ukraine and the Alliance had already been going on for a decade.
Participants noted that the issue of Ukraine's accession to the NATO Membership Action Plan (which does not automatically imply Alliance membership status), became especially important politically due to the discussion within Ukraine, and also because of Ukraine's special geopolitical status. The process of Ukraine joining the NATO Membership Action Plan depends mainly on how the country is implementing reforms and how it copes with assigned tasks.
NATO is an alliance of equal, sovereign, and independent states, and all decisions in this organization are made based on consensus; this is an organization based on the principles of solidarity of member states, on mutual values, including democratic standards, supremacy of law, and human rights. At present, NATO is focusing on new safety challenges - such as the cyber-terrorism threat and energy safety issues-- and is trying to make its contribution into solving these problems in cooperation with other international institutions.
Major problems to be addressed today by NATO leaders include ways and forms of financing the Alliance (in accordance with the increased number and scope of operations with the Alliance participation aimed at preserving peace and stability); updating the structure of the Alliance Armed Forces to meet modern requirements; and also substantial improvement of coordination and system cooperation with the European Union.
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