January 2014 marks 20 years since the launch of the NATO Partnership for Peace (NATO/PfP) – a large-scale initiative for practical cooperation in security and defence area between NATO and partner countries of the organization.

Formal basis for the NATO/PfP is a Framework Document adopted at the NATO Summit in Brussels in January 1994. Based on practical cooperation and on a commitment to the democratic principles that underpin the Alliance itself, the purpose of the Partnership for Peace is to increase stability, diminish threats to peace and build strengthened security relationships between individual Euro-Atlantic partners and NATO, as well as among partner countries.

In a statement to mark the 20th anniversary of the Partnership for Peace, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stressed the importance of the decision to create a Partnership for Peace with the countries of the Euro-Atlantic area, and expressed confidence that the programme would continue to foster peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area and help develop NATO’s growing network of partnerships.

Ukraine became the first CIS country to join the NATO/PfP, having signed the Framework Document on 8 February 1994. Ukraine’s active participation in the activities of the programme helps our country in reforming security and defence sector and facilitates the improvement of operational interoperability of the Armed Forces. The mechanism of the Planning and Review Process within NATO/PfP helps identify the key requirements for the purposes of defence planning.

Ukraine participates in the NATO/PfP Trust Fund project for the destruction of surplus ammunition and weapons in Ukraine as well as in NATO/PfP Trust Fund Resettlement Programme on social adaptation and retraining of retired military personnel including those who retired as a consequence of Ukraine’s military reform.

Using the mechanisms of NATO/PfP Science for Peace and Security programme, Ukraine cooperates with the Alliance in science and environmental protection spheres.