Ukraine signs decree on cooperation with NATO.
On April 10, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on the national program of cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for 2019.
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| President Petro Poroshenko. Photo: AFP/VNA |
President Poroshenko signed and announced the program at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.
NATO and Ukraine agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in 2019 in areas such as military training, increased adoption of NATO technical standards in the Eastern European country, and enhanced security of missile and ammunition depots.
For many years, Ukraine has been striving to accelerate its process of joining NATO. President Poroshenko once stated that he would hold a referendum on NATO membership before 2020.
Furthermore, President Poroshenko intends to request NATO to implement the Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine at the NATO summit scheduled to take place in London (UK) in December 2019 if he is re-elected in the upcoming second round of the presidential election.
Ukraine will have to hold a second round of presidential elections because no candidate secured more than 50% of the vote to guarantee victory in the first round of voting on March 31.
According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), in the first round of voting, candidate Volodymyr Zelensky, leader of the "Servant of the People" party, won 30.24% of the vote, while incumbent President Poroshenko received 15.93%, followed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with 13%.
The second round of the election is scheduled for April 21st and will be a race between candidate Zelensky and incumbent President Poroshenko.
