Quote: Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko stressed Friday that Kiev was free to forge its own security policy as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization reaffirmed his country would become a member despite Russian opposition.
"Ukraine is not a product of the Cold War. Ukraine is a sovereign, independent state and it has its own right to formulate its own security policy," he told reporters at a NATO summit in Bucharest.
His remarks came minutes before leaders of the military alliance sat down to talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, amid deep tensions over the aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia to enter NATO.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said a decision by leaders Thursday that the former Soviet republics "will become members" was the start of a process that would see Kiev brought into the fold.
"I think that it was the launch of a process that will lead to Ukrainian membership of NATO. That is a conclusion that we should not underestimate," he said after a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission.
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