Ukraine aims to adopt 200 NATO standards by year’s end – defense minister

The Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine have already implemented 287 NATO standards, and by the end of the year, they plan to introduce about 200 standards of the North Atlantic Alliance.

Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov reported this in an interview with Ukrinform.

The head of the department noted that, in total, there are more than 1,200 standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"Ukraine's Security and Defense Forces have implemented 287 NATO standards. This is almost a quarter of the total number. Of them, 174 are within the scope of the Ukraine-NATO partnership goals (priority standards of the Alliance), 113 are proactive," Reznikov emphasized.

The Minister of Defense also stated that the number of implemented standards is not a determining factor when making a political decision regarding the Euro-Atlantic integration of the state.

According to the head of the ministry, most of the member states have, on average, about 30% of implemented standards from the total number.

"According to this indicator (implemented standards – ed.), Ukraine ranks first among NATO partner states and even exceeds the indicators of some member states. By the end of 2023, about 200 more standards […] are planned to be implemented. And there are certain standards that we don't need to implement. For example, the standard for the quality of drinking water for the provision of troops is higher here than in NATO countries," Reznikov noted.

The head of the Ministry of Defense named three points that will be decisive in Ukraine's integration into NATO.

• The first assumes civilian-democratic control over the Armed Forces – both in the form of legislation and in the form of built infrastructure.
• The second is clear, transparent, responsible procedures for providing military equipment starting from procurement.
• The third is joint planning of operations.

"If a country meets these three criteria, it becomes a NATO country," Reznikov summarized.

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It should be noted that on September 30, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine's parliament – ed.] Ruslan Stefanchuk, and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal signed Ukraine's application for accelerated accession to NATO.

Already this year, a summit of NATO countries took place in Vilnius on July 11 and 12, one of the main topics of which was Ukraine.

In the final communique of the summit, published on the Alliance's website, the heads of states and governments of the North Atlantic Alliance recognized Ukraine's progress on the path of Euro-Atlantic integration. They confirmed that Ukraine's future is in NATO.

In addition, NATO heads of states and governments agreed to drop the requirement for a Membership Action Plan for Ukraine. They said they would invite Ukraine to join the Alliance after "fulfilling the conditions."

In addition, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries agreed on the "Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine" on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius.

According to the results, President Zelensky said that during the two days of the NATO summit in Vilnius, it was possible to remove any doubts and ambiguities about whether Ukraine would join NATO.