Yanukovych: Ukraine does not plan expention of cooperation programs with NATO

Ukraine will not renege on current cooperation agreements with NATO, including a plan to supply troops to the alliance's rapid reaction force, the country's new president Viktor Yanukovych said Monday.

Yanukovych, speaking on his first foreign trip abroad in Brussels, confirmed the commitment when answering to a specific question about the initiative.

'The status of Ukraine is not going to change, as to the programmes we have jointly between NATO and Ukraine they will continue and our partnership relations will continue,' he stated.

However, he did add that as far as future relations between NATO and Ukraine, 'it's an issue to negotiate, to discuss.'

The new Ukrainian president surprised observers by picking Brussels and not Moscow for his first international trip, but limited himself to meeting with European Union officials, despite the fact that NATO headquarters are also based in the Belgian capital.

'The programme that I have in Brussels today is primarily directed at finding solutions to the most pressing issues, the economic issues,' the told reporters after meeting European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.