The officials of the Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense Bloc have called the stance of the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen "predictable," while the Regions Party expect the new president to support a non-bloc status for Ukraine.
As reported, when asked whether Ukraine and Georgia remain "real candidates," Rasmussen said: "My position is the same as the one taken by the NATO allies. Let me remind you that during the Bucharest summit, we decided unanimously that Georgia and Ukraine could become NATO members in future when they achieve the necessary criteria. At this stage, they have not achieved the necessary criteria. Here and now, this is a hypothetical question."
Commenting on this statement, member of the MP group "For Ukraine," MP Andriy Parubiy (OU-PSD) told Interfax-Ukraine: "Members of the alliance have already made a clear and understandable statement that they see Ukraine as a member of NATO, but they are concerned about political instability in Ukraine and... there is no majority of NATO proponents among the Ukrainians."
According to the MP, the NATO officials believe that the government should initiate a campaign explaining the advantages of membership of the alliance to the public. He added that most European states had to go through this process before entering NATO.
On the other hand, MP Vadym Kolesnichenko (Regions Party) told the agency that "the foreign pseudo-investors should not decide the foreign policy of Ukraine."
According to him, the foreign political course of the country will be set after the presidential election (scheduled for January 17, 2010).
