Christoph Heusgen, the chief adviser for foreign policy and security issues for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, says NATO won't give its final approval of the Ukrainian application for the NATO Membership Action Plan in December.
He gave his opinion in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
In his opinion, NATO in December will only assess the preparedness of Ukraine for the NATO Membership Action Plan.
"Only the first assessment of the Ukrainian development will be considered. In my opinion, the business won't come further than this. They will assess the development, name drawbacks. But, this will be the first check, others will follow," he said.
According to Heusgen, the skepticism of German Chancellor Merkel concerns only execution of specific steps on the way to NATO. In general, Germany supports Ukraine's accession to NATO.
"I am reminding that the chancellor of Germany at the summit of NATO in Bucharest in April contributed to inclusion of the clauses in the final provisions that Ukraine will become a member of NATO...There are certain tasks that need to be fulfilled on the way to the MAP. But, the principled position is that Ukraine will be a member of NATO," he said.
He said it was important not only to continue reforms of the armed forces, but also to achieve agreement among the branches of the Ukrainian government. The support for the idea of joining NATO from the people should increase too.
He said Ukraine's swift approaching NATO could split the Ukrainian nation.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, NATO gave a positive assessment of the execution by Ukraine of the Ukraine-NATO Target Plan in the first half of 2008.
On April 3, the NATO summit in Bucharest decided to postpone the consideration of the Ukrainian application for the NATO Membership Action Plan until December.
Germany said at the summit the accession of Ukraine and Georgia to the NATO MAP in April would be a hasty step.
