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) in 2019.
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| President Petro Poroshenko. Photo: AFP/TTXVN |
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, increasing the application of NATO technical standards in the Eastern European country as well as increasing the safety of missile and ammunition depots.
Ukraine has been trying for years to speed up the process of joining NATO. President Poroshenko has announced that he will hold a referendum on NATO membership before 2020.
In addition, President Poroshenko plans to ask NATO to implement a 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 presidential elections.
Ukraine will have to hold a second round of presidential elections because no candidate won more than 50% of the votes to ensure 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 votes, while incumbent President Poroshenko received 15.93% of the votes, followed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with 13% of the votes.
The second round of the election is expected to be held on April 21 and will be a race between candidate Zelensky and incumbent President Poroshenko.
