KIEV, August 31 -- Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said on Saturday her Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party would soon initiate a nationwide referendum on the country’s accession to NATO. She said the party would submit the necessary papers to the Central Electoral Commission before the end of the day so that the referendum could be held simultaneously with the early parliamentary elections slated for October 26. “The Batkivshchina party made the decision to begin today all procedures that are required for holding a referendum on accession to NATO on the day of the pre-term elections to the Verkhovna Rada [parliament],” Timoshenko said in a statement posted on the party’s official website. The party is planning to collect 3 million signatures required for initiating a referendum. On Friday, a bill abolishing Ukraine’s non-bloc status was registered in the national parliament. The bill also resumes the process of accession to NATO. The bill amends the laws on the basic principles of Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policy and on the basic principles of Ukraine’s national security and creates a legislative framework for the country’s integration into the Euro-Atlantic security space and for protecting territorial integrity and sovereignty. The bill also forbids Ukraine to join any alliances other than the European Union. Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk told a cabinet meeting earlier in the day that Ukraine would seek NATO membership. Only several months earlier, he stated that “the question of membership in the alliance is not on the agenda now” and “we are talking about cooperation and technical support in order upgrade the army”. “We are submitting a draft law to parliament that cancels the non-bloc status. This charts the way for Ukraine to become a member of NATO,” he said. Ukraine signed the Charter on Distinctive Partnership with NATO in 1997 and began to take steps towards joining the alliance five years later, setting 2008 as the target date for joining the Western military bloc. Ukraine joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme in 1994. NATO defines the programme as allowing Euro-Atlantic partner countries to build individual relationships with the bloc, choosing their own priorities for co-operation. The process of accession to NATO was halted in 2010 when the then president Viktor Yanukovich pushed through a law declaring the non-bloc status and giving up plans to join the organisation. Yanukovich said that non-block status would allow his country to develop cooperation with all countries. Source: Tass
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