No one planned to fulfil the promise of Bucharest summit – Foreign Minister

Ukraine has received assurances that the countries participating in the NATO summit, which is being held in Vilnius, are determined to fulfil the promises made to it.

Source: Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in an interview with Radio Liberty 

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, although Kyiv received the prospect of a Membership Action Plan at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, and not the MAP itself, "in reality, no one planned to fulfil this promise".

"All of them assure me that, Dmytro, we understand your feelings, but we are convinced that there will be no repetition of Bucharest, ... this time we are determined to fulfil the promises given to you," Kuleba said.

"I say: well, that's all great, of course, but, as they say, it's not for sale. That is, you can't go out and tell people: ‘I was promised at the meeting that this time it will be different’," he said, referring to conversations held on the sidelines of the summit.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs added that there are currently discussions between the Allies regarding the future membership of Ukraine, the essence of which does not reflect the wording: "to send Ukraine an invitation to join the Alliance when its members agree, and the conditions are met."

"This is exactly the fly in the ointment that spoils a barrel of honey. But we will work [with this]. Today, we already discussed implementing today's decision so that the path to NATO does not take many years," Kuleba summarised.

Background: 

• Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he was disappointed with the NATO decision on Ukraine’s membership in the Alliance, which fell short of inviting Ukraine to join.
• The decision of the Vilnius summit includes quite positive wording regarding Ukraine. In particular, the NATO summit agreed to remove the requirement for the Membership Action Plan on Ukraine's path to the Alliance. At the same time, the allies made it clear that they would invite Ukraine to join NATO "when the conditions are met".
• The summit decision does not include a list of conditions to be fulfilled by Ukraine, but a mechanism for their assessment is defined. The Annual National Programme (ANP) will be a tool for monitoring the reforms implemented by Ukraine. This tool is already at the disposal of Ukraine.

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