Walker said the unwillingness of Ukraine to join NATO
The special representative of the United States Ukraine Kurt Volker said that Ukraine is not ready to join NATO, North Atlantic Alliance is also not yet willing to accept it. He said this in an interview to “Direct”.
He noted that before joining NATO, Ukraine should “reforms concerning defense and security and to tighten its economy and to overcome corruption and improve relations with neighbors.” He added that “we really would like to” restore the good business climate in Ukraine, which is the main criterion for investment.
According to him, the process of joining the North Atlantic Alliance takes a lot of time.
“The US, EU, Russia — everyone needs to understand that Ukraine is an independent state. Nobody can say when to join NATO. But this does not mean that Ukraine is close to getting an invitation to join NATO” — said Walker.
He also said that Western countries should be ready to “aggression” by Russia in connection with Russian military exercises “Zapad-2017”. According to him, the Western community should develop its own security system and to work together on this.
The Ministry of foreign Affairs of Russia on 25 August accused Western countries in the information campaign launched around the “West-2017”. The foreign Ministry believe that the “hype” regarding the exercises is done for the “reasonableness” of the costs for deployment in Poland and the Baltic countries, reinforced forward presence and increasing military activity of NATO.