Ukraine votes to renounce non-aligned status

Kiev, Dec 23 (IANS/TASS) Ukraine's parliament Tuesday voted to renounce the country's non-aligned status and work towards NATO membership.

The law, proposed by President Petro Poroshenko, was backed by 303 lawmakers, 77 more than the minimum required.

The lawmakers considered a total of four similar bills.

All of these bills envisage "the abandonment of the non-bloc status and the return towards NATO rapprochement which will significantly increase Ukraine's position in defence".

Last week, Poroshenko said the refusal to join NATO in 2010 was the "biggest mistake of the former Ukrainian leadership".

He also said the decision on the issue should be taken during an all-Ukrainian referendum.

In November, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, said the membership may be sought by countries that fulfill the criteria for becoming NATO allies, and that was also valid for Ukraine.

Russia's permanent representative to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Andrei Kelin, earlier in the day said that Ukraine did not correspond to the criteria for joining NATO either in economic or in political terms.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in November that Kiev's abandoning of the current non-bloc status meant a course towards solving the conflict in south-eastern Ukraine by force against Russia.

Kiev started building ties with NATO shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine was one of the first former Soviet states which joined NATO's Partnership for Peace Programme in 1994.

Former president Leonid Kuchma officially announced Ukraine's plans to join the alliance.

During the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine launched a dialogue on the possible membership.

When Yanukovych came to power, Ukraine was given a non-bloc status.

--IANS/TASS

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