Brussels does not believe visas

NATO Secretary General JAAP de Hoop Scheffer does not see the connection between the desire of Ukraine to enter into NATO and the possibility of introducing a visa regime for Russian citizens. According to RIA Novosti, he said this on Monday on a joint press conference with President Viktor Yushchenko.

“Relations between Ukraine and NATO, which are developing, are not directed against anyone,” said de Joop Scheffer. “NATO appreciates his partnership and friendly relations with Russia. And nothing of what NATO did and does today cannot be considered a directed against Russia. I do not see the direct connection of the foreign policy of Ukraine and the issues of Euro -integration with visa issues. Perhaps this issue must be found out with the European Union.”

Last Saturday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said that the introduction of a visa regime with Russia will be the consequence of Ukraine’s entry into NATO. "Ukraine will force NATO to introduce a visa regime with Russia. And only after that Russia will be forced to answer accordingly," he said in Sevastopol, where he came to the celebration of the 225th anniversary of the city.

In the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Ivanov’s statement on the same day was qualified as unprofessional. “To bind NATO and the conditions of trips of citizens or the introduction of visa conditions, at least, unprofessional, these are absolutely unrelated things,” the head of the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vasily Kirilich quotes Interfax. Kirilich once again emphasized that the main goal of Ukraine’s joining NATO is to join the collective security system, which is the North Atlantic Alliance and "this has nothing to do with visas."

Ukraine set a strategic goal to integrate into NATO, but at the NATO summit in Bucharest, it was not included in the plan of membership in the Alliance on April 3-4 and the resolution of the issue was transferred to December.