KYIV. July 10 (Interfax) - Kyiv has every chance of becoming an eastern flank of NATO and is willing to develop partnership with the alliance, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze said.
"We are talking precisely about partnership rather than going to NATO with a request for protection. We have something to contribute to this system," Klympush-Tsyntsadze said in opening the exhibition 'Ukraine-NATO. Formula4Security' attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Kyiv on Monday.
The suggestions that Ukraine will immediately restore its territorial integrity and will be in safety once joining NATO are a myth, as nobody can protect Ukraine better than it can do it itself, she said.
If Ukraine meets NATO criteria, skeptics would have fewer opportunities to delay its accession to the alliance, she said.
"We have every opportunity to become an eastern flank of the security structure, having an army whose power and experience are strengthening from day to day," Klympush-Tsyntsadze said.