According to the press service of the President of Ukraine on March 28, "the annual national program (ANP-2018) should ensure the fulfillment of the priority tasks of Ukraine's cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as relevant decisions taken during the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission at the level of the heads of state, [...] other important agreements with NATO".
The program is aimed at attracting and using the potential, practical and consultative-advisory assistance of NATO and member states with the aim of enhancing Ukraine's defense capability in the context of Russia's armed aggression, the document says.
It is a systemic strategic document that defines priorities and medium-term goals, which are planned to be achieved by 2020.
The program of cooperation and the course of reforms
Vitalii Martyniuk, theexpert on international security issues of the Centre for Global Studies "Strategy XXI",believes that in the military sphere the process of bringing the Armed Forces to NATO standards continues all the time, the Ukrainian military is actively in contact with the Alliance.
"I would say that Ukraine is consistently fulfilling its tasks within the framework of the Annual National Programs of cooperation with NATO. In 2017, significant progress was made on the political plane - the Law on the Fundamentals of Internal and Foreign Policy of Ukraine was supplemented with the goals and priorities that the country is aspiring NATO membership; now it is fixed in legislation, has its positive consequences. Ukraine has received the status of the aspirant country", Vitalii Martyniuk told Russian Service of Voice of America correspondent.
At the same time, he reminds that today's progress in cooperation with NATO can also be viewed, in some way, as a process of "correcting" mistakes made during the reign of Yanukovych.
"The status of the aspirant country of NATO membership recognizes the desire of Ukraine to join the alliance. But there is some surprise because in 2008 in the declaration of the Bucharest summit it was written that Georgia and Ukraine - "these countries will become members of the Alliance." Today's cooperation looks like a correction of what was created during the period of Yanukovych's rule, when in practice Ukraine withdrew from European and Euro-Atlantic integration. There are many works here, and indeed there are warnings from the European Union and NATO that the level of fighting corruption in the country does not meet its obligations, plus there is a lack of significant progress in the reforms of the judicial system", Vitalii Martyniuk underlines.
Euro-Atlantic cooperation, according to Vitalii Martyniuk, is not limited to the framework of the annual programs.
"At the end of 2017, Ukraine was decided to join the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence in Vilnius, Lithuania. Now the process of signing the relevant documents is underway. This may be the first experience to join other similar NATO Centers. For example, the Center for the Cyber Defense ofNATO, which is located in Tallinn (Estonia). We have a relevant trust fund to provide assistance to Ukraine, the NATO Liaison Office contacts all state structures not only through experience transfer programs, but also provides technical equipment for cyber defense", Martyniuk notes.
