22.05.2003 # 24

NATO member-countries positively view the development of cooperation with Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement. The statement cited the outcome of a meeting of the Ukrainian-NATO Commission at the level of ambassadors, which took place in Brussels. Ambassadors of NATO member-countries and Ukraine reviewed Ukraine's implementation of the Ukrainian-NATO Plan of Goals for 2003. The head of Ukraine's mission to NATO, Volodymyr Khandogyi, informed the participants in the commission's meeting about the measures being taken by Ukraine to realize the Plan of Goals for 2003. The participants in the meeting also discussed preparation for the meetings of the Ukrainian-NATO Commission that will take place at the levels of foreign ministers and defense ministers in Brussels on June 3 and in Madrid on June 13. Last week, the Ukrainian State Council for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration directed the Cabinet of Ministers and the national Center for Euro-Atlantic Integration to start drafting the priority measures that will be included in the Ukrainian-NATO Action Plan for 2004. Ukraine and NATO adopted an Action Plan and a Plan of Goals for 2003 during NATO's summit in Prague in November 2002. President Leonid Kuchma has repeatedly said that Ukraine has no alternative to its policy of joining NATO.