Poland and NATO after the Cold War

Page 197

The NATO-Ukraine Charter consists of 19 points divided into five sections. Section I describes the purpose of mutual relations: strengthening cooperation, security, and stability in Europe. Section II describes the principles of cooperation, founded on international law, such as: recognising that the security of all states in the OSCE area is indivisible, that no state should pursue its security at the expense of another state, refrain from the threat or use of force against any state in any manner inconsistent with the United Nations Charter or Helsinki Final Act, the inherent right of all states to choose and to implement freely their own security arrangements, including Alliance treaties, respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of all other states, for the inviolability of frontiers, and the development of good-neighbourly relations, the rule of law, the fostering of democracy, political pluralism and a market economy, respect for human rights and the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, and the prevention of conflicts and settlement of disputes by peaceful means in accordance with UN and OSCE principles. Ukraine reaffirmed its determination to carry forward with defence reforms, to strengthen democratic and civilian control of the armed forces, and to increase interoperability with NATO while the Alliance declared support for these undertakings. Section III defines the areas of consultation and cooperation, such as political and security-related subjects, in particular the development of Euro-Atlantic security and stability, including the security of Ukraine, conflict prevention, crisis management, peace support, conflict resolution and humanitarian operations, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, combating organised crime and terrorism, civil emergency planning, and disaster preparedness, civil-military relations, budgeting, defence planning, strategy and national security concepts, defence industry conversion and economic aspects of security, environmental issues, including the safety of nuclear installations, airspace usage, scientific and technical research, cooperation between arms industries, military training, promotion of cooperation with neighbours. These areas of cooperation were assigned to specific forms of contacts listed in Section IV: reciprocal high-level visits, meetings with specialised NATO committees, periodic meetings of Ukraine representatives with NAC and defence ministers, activities within the framework of the PfP, exchange of military liaison missions, interparliamentary contacts. The last part of the document consists of declarations and expresses, among others, the interest the Alliance takes in strengthening Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence.

195


Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.