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Ukraine’s democratic transition. As was argued earlier, successful security sector reform is a
vital and inseparable component of the larger process of democratisation and any attempt to
do one without the other is likely to result in the failure of both.
The signing of the Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between Ukraine and NATO
in 1997 paved the way for the alliance to play a positive role in facilitating reform in this
newly independent state. SSR is conducted through the Ukraine-NATO Commission,
meetings under the 19+1 formula, joint working groups, reciprocal high-level visits, expert
exchanges, and a crisis consultative mechanism. The NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) of
Ministers in 2001 set out a 12 point action plan supporting three key decisions to synergise
NATO’s programmes to Ukraine.
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These are: to extend the focus of the Joint Working
Group on Defence Reform to include broader security sector reforms, to use the PfP
Planning and Review Process as a tool to support Ukranie’s State Plan for Reform of the
armed forces and to strengthen support of bi-lateral cooperation for defence reform. The
JWGDR, working under the NUC, is the key focal point for NATO-Ukraine defence and
security cooperation. Using the Planning and Review Process (PARP), the JWGDR aims
are two fold - to increase the interoperability of Ukrainian forces, and to set the priorities for
Ukrainian defence reform. The PARP has been used to develop a State Plan for Reform of
the Armed Forces. During 2001 this has meant that Ukraine and NATO have worked closely
on the development of National Defence Reform Objectives. In a clear sign of NATO
playing a far wider role in Ukraine’s transition both in the security sector and more generally
in its democratic transition an action plan was created at the Prague Summit in November
2002, as part of the agreement by the NUC to deepen and broaden the NATO-Ukraine
relationship.
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The action plan is divided into five sections the last of which outlines how the
plan will be implemented. Highlighting the crucial link between security sector reform and
democratisation the first section deals, in considerable detail, with institution building and the
rights of Ukrainian citizens. The second section deals with security sector reform and details
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NATO-Ukraine Cooperation on defence reform, http://www.ukraine.be/NATO/defence.html
Convention