The defense minister of Ukraine expressed confidence on Sunday that Russia would not block his nation's efforts to join NATO, and he said the greater hurdle might be convincing a population that for decades was bathed in Soviet propaganda criticizing the Atlantic alliance.
At a brief news conference in Vilnius with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Ukrainian defense minister, Anatoliy Hrytsenko, said potential NATO membership for Ukraine "is no threat for the Russian republic."
Asked whether he expected Moscow to object to Ukraine's moves toward NATO membership, he said, "I don't see it as a really serious issue."
The comments came as NATO defense ministers gathered in Vilnius for their fourth meeting in four years dedicated to assessing, and assisting, Ukraine's desire for membership.
No timetable was set for Ukraine's entry into the Atlantic alliance; instead, NATO defense ministers arrived here in Lithuania, a former Soviet republic that is one of NATO's newest members, to review Ukraine's plans for military reform to meet alliance criteria.
Ukraine has already moved to increase military spending while considering ways to end its draft and create an all-volunteer, prof-essional armed force. The Kiev government is drawing up plans to retire a number of Soviet-era weapons systems, in particular large tanks, to create lighter and more deployable units.
Russia is not a NATO member, but its shadow has fallen over past alliance debates on membership for formerly Communist nations in Central and Eastern Europe.
From Moscow's perspective, Ukraine's NATO membership may be viewed in a far more negative light than former Warsaw Pact members that entered the alliance or than the three Baltic states, former Soviet republics, that also joined NATO.
Ukraine was for decades the Soviet Union's breadbasket and a center of heavy industry and mining; as a Slavic nation, it has deep historic ties to Russia.
A lack of public support in Ukraine for NATO membership is understandable, Hrytsenko said, because many citizens of his nation suffer from a "lack of knowledge" about NATO and carry Soviet-era stereotypes of the alliance, and its mission.
He predicted that as the government in Kiev succeeded in its promise of political reform and economic growth, the public would trust its leadership and support NATO membership.
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