Parliament gets ready for making Ukraine non-aligned nation.

KIEV, June 3 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine's parliament is getting ready for
making official the country's refusal to join NATO and for turning the
country into a non-aligned nation.
On Thursday, parliamentarians will consider a draft law on Ukraine's
internal and external policy that is expected to cause hot disputes.
Before submitting the document to the parliament President Viktor
Yanukovich put it on the agenda of the National Security and Defence
Council that discussed it behind closed doors.
Yanukovich stressed the need for urgent consideration of the draft law
"as further delays with tackling the issue create a threat to Ukraine's
national security and national interests," the president's press service
said.
The president said he considered the law "the country's first and
extremely important step towards systematic reforms in all spheres of
life."
The National Security and Defence Council supported the president's
initiative and recommended Yanukovich to submit the document for the
parliament's urgent consideration.
Under the draft law "Ukraine as a European non-aligned state pursues a
transparent foreign policy avoiding dependence on certain countries, a
group of countries or international structures."
The major principles of the country's foreign policy are "non-
participation in military political alliances and participation in
modernization and development of Europe's collective security system."
Among Ukraine's foreign policy priorities are "integration into the
European political, economic and legal space with the end goal of becoming
a EU member."
The parliamentary majority will support the draft law. A member of the
Yulia Timoshenko Bloc, Sergei Sobolev, said the faction has no intention
to hamper the parliament's work, but will call on members of parliament
and public at large to vote against the document.
At the same time, a member of the parliamentary committee for national
security and defence, Anatoly Gritsenko, from Our Ukraine-People's
Self-Defence did not rule out that "consideration of the draft law can
lead to a new wave of confrontation in the parliament, as it was on April
27, when MPs ratified the treaty extending the lease of Russia's Black Sea
Fleet in the Crimea."
After the parliamentary session politicians and parliamentarians will
gather in Palace Ukraine, where Yanukovich will speak after his first 100
days in office. Parliamentary speaker Vladimir Litvin expressed the hope
that the president will make public a plan of actions, where political
issues will not dominate over economic ones.