A Summit meeting between the leaders of the 19 NATO member countries and the President of Ukraine was held in Washington on 24 April 1999. This was the first summit-level meeting in the framework of the NATO-Ukraine Commission established in 1997. In March 2000, the Commission met for the first time in Kyiv.

The forward progress of the relationship between NATO and Ukraine was inevitably affected by the crisis over Kosovo. However, since the crisis, political and practical cooperation have been further pursued. Ukrainian participation in the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo established in 1999 was welcomed, and NATO countries have affirmed their determination that cooperation should be extended and strengthened in the future.


NATO'S MEDITERRANEAN DIALOGUE

Even during the Cold War, when NATO’s primary focus was on Central Europe, the Mediterranean region was of great strategic importance. In the 1990s, it became clear that developments in the Balkans and, further south, throughout the Mediterranean region, could have serious implications for European security. NATO’s enhanced focus on the Mediterranean region can be traced to the 1991 Strategic Concept. In this document, NATO countries expressed the desire to “maintain peaceful and non-adversarial relations with the countries in the Southern Mediterranean and Middle East.” They considered that the “stability and peace of the countries on the southern periphery of Europe are important for the security of the Alliance...”

The 1991 Strategic Concept also highlighted the importance NATO countries attached to developing dialogue and cooperation with countries that were not members of NATO. Although this policy was formulated with Central and Eastern European countries in mind, a similar approach lay behind the invitation to a number of interested Mediterranean countries to participate in a dialogue with the Alliance.

The development of the Mediterranean dialogue was one of many important initiatives taken in 1994. The Brussels Summit Declaration of January 1994 called for efforts to strengthen stability in the Mediterranean region and stated that progress in the Middle East Peace Process should lead to further efforts to “promote dialogue, understanding and confidence-building” in the area. NATO leaders examined measures to promote dialogue and declared that they were ready to establish individual contacts between the Alliance and Mediterranean non-member countries with a view to strengthening regional stability.