Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine’s goal is to become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance in the next 10 years, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
About this he said in an interview with the German publication Hamburger Abendblatt, which is part of the Funke Media Group.
“We are working with particular persistence towards NATO membership. Our goal is to become a member of the Alliance in the next decade,” Poroshenko said.
He emphasized that together with Ukraine, the North Atlantic Alliance would become stronger and more effective than it is today, and NATO states could learn from Ukraine how to confront Russia.
The Ukrainian president also said that Kyiv has been confronting “pro-Russian separatists supported by the Kremlin” in the east of the country since 2014. According to Poroshenko, “through the fault of Russia,” more than 10 thousand people have been killed in this conflict.
Regarding Moscow’s Crimea, Poroshenko said the following: “Russia destroyed the system of international order after World War II. There is no alternative to a strong NATO for the global security system.”
Commenting on NATO granting Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Georgia the status of “postgraduate countries,” Poroshenko emphasized: “We now need an action plan to obtain full NATO membership. We aim to have this action plan in place by the end of 2019.”
According to Poroshenko, Ukraine strives “as soon as possible” to fulfill all the criteria for membership in NATO and the EU.
The Ukrainian government allocates “up to six percent” of GDP to defense, which is four times more than among NATO partners, Poroshenko emphasized.