{"id":32284,"date":"2018-03-13T09:17:58","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T14:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=32284"},"modified":"2018-03-13T09:18:32","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T14:18:32","slug":"ukraine-gets-official-nato-status-weighing-up-the-pros-and-cons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=32284","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Gets Official NATO Status: Weighing Up the Pros and Cons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ukraine<\/p>\n

Ukraine Gets Official NATO Status: Weighing Up the Pros and Cons<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n

NATO\u00a0has granted<\/a>\u00a0Ukraine the status of an\u00a0aspirant country<\/a>. Macedonia, Georgia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina have similar status. This means Kiev has been offered a real chance to make its dreams come true. The next step will be obtaining its Membership Action Plan (MAP), a set of criteria to meet before the country is allowed to join. It is tailored to each applicant country’s individual profile. This type of plan can be granted at any time; there is no need to wait for summits or ministry-level meetings. Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are aspirants with a MAP.<\/p>\n

Last summer, Ukraine\u2019s parliament (Rada)\u00a0adopted a resolution<\/a>\u00a0recognizing full membership in NATO as a foreign policy goal. In 2008, NATO agreed that Ukraine and Georgia should become members at a future date.<\/p>\n

The Swiss newspaper\u00a0Le Temps\u00a0recently reported<\/a>\u00a0that hundreds of US and Canadian military instructors have been training Ukrainian personnel at\u00a0the Yavorov firing range since 2015. Not long ago they were joined by British and Lithuanian trainers. Roughly 6,000 Ukrainian servicemen have undergone training there in order to expedite the process of meeting the requirements set by NATO. The US Navy\u00a0operates<\/a>\u00a0a facility in Ochakov. This month, the State Department approved the possible sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. The announcement preceded a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0made by Kurt Volker, the US special envoy to Ukraine, in which he offered to disband the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n

This is all part of a broader picture. On March 2, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0the formation of an alliance to counter Russia. Chisinau is to cozy up as close to NATO as it can. The Moldovan government has announced its decision to buy lethal weapons from countries in that alliance. The US Navy\u00a0operates a facility<\/a>\u00a0at the Bulboaca training base.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0calls\u00a0<\/a>for Georgia\u2019s membership<\/a>\u00a0are getting louder in the US. Tbilisi\u2019s NATO bid\u00a0has been openly supported<\/a>\u00a0by the Trump administration. It has been reported recently that Georgia is to adopt a\u00a0fast-track approach<\/a>\u00a0that will expedite its entrance into NATO. This policy has been recommended by the Heritage Foundation think tank. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg,\u00a0has said<\/a>\u00a0that nothing stands in the way of Georgia joining the bloc.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukraine Gets Official NATO Status: Weighing Up the Pros and Cons NATO\u00a0has granted\u00a0Ukraine the status of an\u00a0aspirant country. Macedonia, Georgia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina have similar status. This means Kiev has been offered a real chance to make its dreams come true. The next step will be obtaining its Membership Action Plan (MAP), a set of criteria […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[553,16490,694,8203,821,862],"class_list":["post-32284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-nato","tag-peter-korzun","tag-russia","tag-strategic-culture-foundation","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32285,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32284\/revisions\/32285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}