Almost half of Ukrainians objected to joining the NATO membership action plan, an opinion poll released by the country's Democratic Initiatives Foundation on Thursday showed.
According to the poll, 49.4 percent of respondents strongly objected to the government's bid to join the NATO membership action plan, while 15.8 percent fully supported such a move and 16.1 percent might approve of such a move.
The poll suggests that 40.9 percent of Ukrainians would certainly take part in a referendum on joining NATO, 15.5 percent would certainly not participate in such a referendum, 34.3 percent of respondents were uncertain.
Of those ready to take part in such a referendum, 52.8 percent of respondents said they would vote against joining NATO and 31.8 percent said they would vote for it.
The poll was carried out on Dec. 5-12, 2007, and questioned 1,800 people, with an estimated 2.3 percent margin of error.
Over 2,000 people marched through the streets of Simferopol, the administrative capital of Crimea in southern Ukraine, on Thursday to protest Ukrainian leaders' bid to join NATO membership action plan.
"Ukraine's bid to NATO will definitely make negative influence on economic, political, and cultural ties with Russia." a protester said.
Last week, Ukraine's leaders sent NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer a formal letter, asking for consideration on Ukraine's bid to join the NATO membership action plan at a NATO summit scheduled for early April in Bucharest, capital of Romania.
However, both Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said a final decision on Ukraine's accession to NATO will be made at a national referendum.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article