Quotable notes (10/08/06)

Quotable notes

"Unfortunately, after this trip, it is 100 percent clear for me at least that no decision will be taken in Riga [at a NATO summit] on Ukraine joining the NATO membership plan. Unfortunately. We really had this chance. We are ready for this, and this would benefit Ukraine and Ukrainians."

- Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatolii Hrytsenko speaking at a news conference on September 15, as reported by BBC Monitoring Service.

"The statement Viktor Yanukovych made in Brussels today to the effect that Ukraine is not prepared to begin to implement an action plan to join NATO is an example of how the clauses of the Universal of National Unity are violated. This is a very provoking move."

- Our Ukraine National Deputy Yurii Kliuchkovskyi, as quoted by Interfax on September 14.

"... if Ukraine wastes this opportunity, because the November Riga NATO summit was expected to declare readiness to agree on Ukraine joining the action plan, a failure to follow this schedule will significantly decrease the dynamics of Ukraine's integration into the world community and deal a serious blow to the strategic interests of our state."

- Anatolii Kinakh, chair of the parliamentary Committee on Security and Defense, as quoted by Interfax on September 14.

"We have lost Belarus and now we risk losing Ukraine."

"Europe must unite as soon as possible, bring economies to similar level, increase its tempo and include the economically poorer nations. Ukraine will see that it pays off, that this is the right direction, and then we will win Ukraine back in our orbit."

- Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, speaking in Warsaw on September 14, as reported by The Associated Press.

"Well, look, there are two sides to this in terms of any - it's common sense - any relationship. One side of it is NATO as a whole and an organization which comprises different member-states with different points of view, so NATO has to decide how it wants to approach its relationship with the Ukraine. And then there's the Ukrainian side. At what rate are they ready to develop and move forward on a relationship with NATO? There's already the NATO-Ukraine Council that meets on a fairly regular basis. So there's already a kind of relationship.

"Now, how that relationship develops and the depth of that development is going to be up to the two sides. And I think right now with a new government in the Ukraine that we're talking with the Ukrainians, other members of NATO are talking with the Ukrainians about that very matter. So it's going to be a two-way street in terms of how that relationship develops. We certainly want to keep those links that we have already established with the Ukraine open, but Ukraine is a country that is in the process of democratic transition. We've seen that over the past couple of years. So they are going to have to decide, you know, how comfortable they are in moving that relationship forward, as is NATO."

- Sean McCormack, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, responding to a question during the daily press briefing in Washington on September 14.

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