Ukraine will build up cooperation with NATO to reform its Armed Forces, First Deputy Defense Minister Hryhoriy Pedchenko said on Wednesday.
"The Ukrainian Defense Ministry positively views all the achievements of cooperation with NATO and will take efforts for its further build-up to achieve real practical results," Pedchenko said at a roundtable discussion held by the Ukraine-NATO partnership network for civil society in Kiev.
Pedchenko said a delegation of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry would attend a session of the Ukraine-NATO commission at the level of defense ministers to be held in early June in Brussels to discuss the prospects of future cooperation.
"We are continuing to work on creating a highly professional and mobile army capable of timely and adequately responding to any national security threats and reliably defending state sovereignty and territorial integrity. This work is being conducted transparently and openly," Pedchenko said.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has indicated that Ukraine will drop his predecessor's plans to attempt to seek NATO membership, a proposal that infuriated Russia, but has also indicated that he will try to maintain good ties with both Moscow and the West.
KIEV, May 26 (RIA Novosti)
