NATO AND UKRAINE MAP OUT COOPERATION PROGRAMS.

The NATO-Ukraine Commission met on June 12 at the level of defense ministers. The meeting, the first at this level, marked one year since the signing of the NATO-Ukraine Charter of Distinctive Partnership. The ministers discussed plans of the Joint Working Group on Military Reform in Ukraine; the Individual Partnership Program, aimed at achieving interoperability between Ukrainian armed forces and NATO; and a Ukrainian offer to establish a training center for Ukrainian and NATO peacekeeping troops at Yavoriv base in Lviv region. First Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Bizhan, representing Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk, indicated that Ukraine is prepared to contribute troops to an international peace-enforcement operation in Kosovo.

The ministers further decided to establish a NATO military liaison office in Kyiv and to expand the activities of NATO’s Information Office in the Ukrainian capital. Last week, Secretary-General Javier Solana appointed the Ukrainian affairs specialist Taras Kuzio of Britain as Information Officer in Kyiv. (NATO communique, DINAU, June 12)

THREE PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS BOYCOTT GEORGIA’S LEGISLATURE.