The time has come to draw up a roadmap for Ukraine’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) and the European Union, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.
“The time has come for Europe and each of us to draw up a clear roadmap for Ukraine to finally join NATO and the European Union and start writing a new history, the history of our joint Central European and Pan-European success,” Kuleba said at the Re: Open Zakarpattia forum on Nov. 5.
The Foreign Minister said that, like all Central European countries that are now members of the EU and NATO, Ukraine really needs a clear European and Euro-Atlantic perspective in order to continue moving forward and increase the speed of this movement.
“Today Ukraine has defined its future as an equal among equals in Central Europe. Europe is our common home. This is the place where we were born and raised. The place where we want our children to live together in peace, mutual respect, and understanding,” he said.
Kuleba also said that Ukraine’s membership in the EU and NATO depends on the political decision of the organizations and possibly before the completion of certain reforms in Ukraine.
“Reforms, the fight against corruption are very important, this is absolutely unambiguous, no one argues with this. But you do not have to bear on yourself all the sadness of the reforms. If there is a political decision in the EU and NATO, we ‘take away,’ then, firstly, it will be much easier for us to make reforms, and, secondly, we will be taken even with some unfinished reforms under guarantees, promises that they will be completed already after acquiring the membership,” Kuleba said.
The minister said that it is impossible to join either the EU or NATO if there is no consolidated position there.
“Therefore, I have a lot of respect for the countries that help us with reforms and support our acquisition of membership and frankly speaking, sometimes harshly with those countries that constantly talk about reforms, and I know that when they sit down in the EU and NATO, in internal conversations they do not support Ukrainian membership,” he said.
