NATO membership for Ukraine is still in the cards, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday in Kiev amid concerns that the former Soviet republic is drawing closer to Moscow under its new government.
“Ukraine is a sovereign and independent country that has the right to choose its own alliances, and NATO’s door remains open,” Mrs. Clinton said upon meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko.
“But it is up to Ukraine to decide whether or not you wish to pursue that or any other course for your own security interests,” she told Mr. Gryshchenko.
Mrs. Clinton’s comments came a day after the Ukrainian parliament passed a law declaring a foreign policy of non-alignment.
Since being narrowly elected earlier this year, barely five years his candidacy in a tainted election precipitated the anti-Russian “Orange Revolution,” President Viktor Yanukovych has all but abandoned his pro-Western predecessor’s NATO bid.
Mrs. Clinton is on a five-day swing through the region that will also bring her to Poland, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
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