VILNIUS. Dec 9 (Interfax-AVN) - The decision by NATO not to grant its Membership Actions Plan to Ukraine and Georgia was partly due to the domestic problems in these two countries, said Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
"Neither Georgia nor Ukraine should bring to NATO their own problems," Yushchenko told a press conference in Vilnius after talks with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus.
At the same time, Ukraine has enough of democratic mechanisms to deal with its internal problems, he said.
Nevertheless, there have been positive results of Ukraine's advancement towards NATO, the Ukrainian president said. "There is a strategy in this issue. And the things that have been done over the past year, I would rate them as absolutely positive results," said Yushchenko, commenting on the NATO foreign ministers' decision to offer annual national programs to Ukraine and Georgia.
Ukraine has developed a coordinated strategy that is clear to NATO, Yushchenko said. "Its main point is that Ukraine will join the North- Atlantic European security zone in the future and will become a NATO member," the president said.
Ukraine's accession to NATO is "only a matter of tactics," he said. Ukraine has received a mechanism, which could be a basis for discussion on approaching NATO, Yushchenko said.