UKRAINE-NATO COOPERATION INTENSIFIES.

The NATO-Ukraine Commission yesterday held a landmark meeting at the ministerial level, as part of a session of the NATO Council which is comprised of the allied countries’ foreign ministers. Reviewing the progress made in the implementation of the NATO-Ukraine Charter of Distinctive Partnership (signed last July), the Brussels sessions approved a substantial NATO-Ukraine Work Plan for 1998. The plan’s priorities include: improving interoperability between Ukrainian and NATO forces; supporting Ukraine’s military reform efforts through the creation of a Joint Working Group on Military Reform; and expanding the activities of the NATO Information Center in Kyiv. The sessions also resolved to develop an "enhanced" Individual Program for Ukraine within the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program.

Defining Ukraine as a "key factor for security and stability in Europe," the NATO foreign ministers declared that "NATO and Ukraine together have a unique opportunity to shape the future of Euro-Atlantic security." Ukrainian foreign minister Hennady Udovenko told the sessions that "integration into European and Euro-Atlantic political, economic, and security structures represents Ukraine’s conscious and strategic choice, which dominates and determines its foreign policy and development as an independent European state." (M2 Communications, December 16)

Kuchma Aims for Demilitarization of Sevastopol.