FOR THE RECORD

Secretary of State Rice comments on Ukraine and NATO membership

Below is the text of a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Ukraine's prospects for NATO membership delivered in Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 27. It was released on April 28 by the Embassy of the United States in Ukraine.

It has been the policy of NATO and it remains the policy of NATO to have an open door to European democracies that wish to join NATO, but also that qualify to join NATO. NATO is a membership organization that has a lot of requirements and a lot of obligations that have to do with security. And so, membership in NATO is something that has to, when NATO takes in members, it is taking in members that can meet those obligations that have the capabilities to do it.

And so when we talk about that open door, we also talk about the states that need to be prepared, we talk about meeting the criteria that are clearly laid out. But I think NATO has a record of having kept that door open and, indeed, when states have met those criteria, they have indeed been admitted. That's why NATO has continued to enlarge over this last decade or so.

The Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people will have to decide whether or not this is something that they wish to pursue, and they will also have to work very hard, I think, to meet the criteria. We already have with Ukraine a NATO-Ukraine Council. That council will meet tomorrow. I think people are looking forward to hearing from Foreign Minister [Borys] Tarasyuk as to Ukraine's intentions. But I think the principle that NATO remains an open organization for those who can meet its requirements and, therefore, are capable of meeting the obligations that come with NATO membership, that remains strong within NATO.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 7, 2006, No. 19, Vol. LXXIV

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