KYIV. Sept 3 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Cabinet of ministers has approved a bill on renouncing Ukraine's non-aligned status and resuming a course toward Euro-Atlantic integration, and now the Verkhonva Rada should pass the legislation, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said.
"This legislation should be passed by the parliament," Yatsenyuk said at a government session on Wednesday.
Yatsenyuk had said on August 29 that the Cabinet submitted legislation on renouncing Ukraine's non-aligned status to the parliament. "In line with the National Security and Defense Council decision, the Ukrainian government submitted legislation to the parliament on renouncing the Ukrainian state's non-aligned status and resuming Ukraine's course toward NATO membership," he said.
The adoption of the bill would mean that Ukraine would be forbidden to become a member of either the Customs Union or the Eurasian Union.
In 2010, the Verkhovna Rada had passed a bill On Principles of Domestic and Foreign Policy submitted by then President Viktor Yanukovych, which declared Ukraine's non-aligned status and ruled out a course toward Euro-Atlantic integration.
The current law stipulates that the main principle of Ukraine's foreign policy is "the observance by Ukraine of a non-aligned policy, which means Ukraine's non-participation in military-political alliances, priority of its involvement in improving and developing the European collective security system, and continuation of constructive cooperation with NATO and other military-political blocs on all matters of mutual interest."
Ukraine declared a course toward Euro-Atlantic integration along with closer ties with the European Union in 2005, immediately after President Viktor Yushchenko came to power. The NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008 was a milestone in Ukraine's NATO membership drive, as it expected to be granted a Membership Action Plan at it. However, the NATO members decided not to grant this plan to Ukraine, arguing that its population was not properly prepared for this step.