UKRAINE'S MAP ACCESSION POSES NO THREAT TO UKRAINE, OTHER COUNTRIES - PRESIDENT

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President Viktor Yushchenko stresses Ukraine has no intentions to deploy military basis in case of its joining NATO.

This was disclosed by President Yushchenko in Kyiv at the All-Ukraine Intelligentsia Forum.

"Someone disseminate a myth that there will be a NATO military base in Sevastopol. There will be no base. Read the Constitution, which clearly says that there will be no military bases of any country or bloc in Ukraine," the President emphasized.

He also reminded that Ukraine refused from nuclear weapon. "Ukraine signed international guarantees saying there will be no nuclear arsenals deployed in the land, neither own nor the foreign ones," he noted.

"What kind of threats may emerge from the Ukrainian area to any other territory?! Ukraine's MAP accession poses no threats", he said.

"Someone says this will make relations with our neighbors more difficult. I would like to know what the motive is for? Or have we been deprived of the right to define own defensive policy?" the President put a rhetorical question.

He added that Russia's good friends are Germany, France, Italy and Spain being the NATO member states.

Thus, according to Yushchenko, the Ukrainian nation will obtain a right to choose through a referendum within several years.

President Yushchenko also pointed out that the majority of countries which became independent over the last 20 years accepted "a model of collective security".

UKRINFORM