Yushchenko: Russia's revision of key bilateral treaty would be big mistake

(LJUBLJANA) - Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko said Wednesday joining the European Union and NATO were in his country's national interest, warning Russia not to react to membership by tearing up a key treaty.

"From a political point of view, it would be a big mistake if (Russia) now prepared a kind of revision of that treaty," Yushchenko told a joint news conference with the president of current EU president Slovenia, Danilo Turk.

Russia's parliament on Wednesday urged President Dmitry Medvedev to tear up the Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, a key treaty governing relations with Ukraine, if the former Soviet republic moved closer to joining NATO.

Yushchenko said Ukraine in 2003 set a strategic objective of one day becoming a member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

He added that such objectives did not represent a "policy against any other state or neighbour."

"I will not allow any possibility of raising the voice or provokations (against Russia). I will do nothing that could throw a wrong light on Ukraine or worsen our relations," Yushchenko said.

He added Ukraine and Russia currently had friendly relations set "at a high level."

In April, NATO turned down Ukraine's application for a Membership Action Plan -- a stepping stone to joining the alliance -- but did say the former Soviet republic would eventually become a member.

Moscow has long opposed the expansion of NATO to include Ukraine, which hosts Russia's Black Sea fleet, as an encroachment into its sphere of influence and a threat to its security.