Republic of Ukraine is an international legal entity which creates relationships with other states, being ruled by international legal norms and principles.
Conception of foreign policy of Ukraine is given in the Declaration of State Sovereignty (July, 1990) and the Act of Independence Declaration (August, 1991) where establishment of an independent state – republic of Ukraine has been declared and consolidated. Since 1949 Ukraine has been an independent member of UN.
The basic document of external politics is General Dimensions of Foreign Politics (July, 1993), which determines foreign political interests of Ukraine, tasks and basics of foreign activity of the state. The main tasks are: development of bilateral relations, especially with the near-border states; establishing relations with Western European countries and European transnational structures. It is important to mention that the top-priorities are relations with near-border and CIS countries, where Russia occupies a special place. Nevertheless, Ukraine has announced for several times its aspiration of entering NATO. The republic’s aristocracy considers NATO membership as the guarantee of independence of Ukraine. As a result the main-line in foreign politics of Ukraine is balancing between NATO and Russia.
The particularity of foreign politics of Ukraine is a multi-vector nature, striving for relations both with Russia and Western countries.
Generally, several vectors can be pointed out in external politics of Ukraine:
- Ukraine and NATO
- Ukraine and the USA
- Ukraine and EU
- Relations with Western and Eastern European countries
- Ukraine and GUUAM
- Ukraine and Russia
