MILITARY-POLITICAL COOPERATION BETWEEN UKRAINE AND NATO: FEATURES OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COOPERATION PROGRAMS (THE END OF THE 20TH – THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY)

Abstract

The article shows the course of Ukraine's military-political cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) during the 2000s. Cooperation with NATO, which was developed within the Partnership for Peace program, was part of a set of European integration measures of our country and was made to increase the interoperability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFO) with NATO units. Military-political cooperation was the priority area of​​cooperation. Cooperation with NATO has positively impacted the reform and further development of the Armed Forces, security tasks compliance. The author retrospectively analyzes the characteristics of the Ukrainian state's cooperation with NATO through the prism of bilateral relations' regulatory framework. Given the geopolitical challenges facing Ukraine in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the emphasis is placed on the North Atlantic Alliance's importance. Bilateral relations have reached a qualitatively new level after the signing of the Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between Ukraine and NATO (1997), which intensified contacts between representatives of the Alliance and Ukraine's central authorities. The priorities of the State Program of Reform and Development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the period up to 2005, the State Program of Cooperation of Ukraine with NATO for the period up to 2001, the State Program of Cooperation of Ukraine with NATO for 2001-2004, the Concept of Military-Technical Cooperation of Ukraine foreign states for the period up to 2010 and other significant documents concerning bilateral relations were determined. The study stressed the futility of the multi-vector policy and the need to deepen contacts with NATO in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Keywords: NATO, Armed Forces, army, European integration.