NEW YORK, Sept. 26 – Russia will play no role in Ukraine’s decision to join NATO alliance despite Moscow’s strong opposition to the move, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.

"It's for Ukraine to decide its own path, whether they want to join NATO or not," Stoltenberg told The Associated Press when asked about recent President Petro Poroshenko's comments that Ukraine will be seeking NATO membership by 2020.

"At the end of the day it will be 29 allies and Ukraine that decides whether Ukraine is ready to meet the standards of joining NATO," Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg expressed concern about Russia's military interference in Ukraine and Georgia, support for Syria's Bashar Assad, and the buildup of Russia's naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean.

NATO and Russia will seek to improve communication that would help to defuse tensions, which remain unresolved as long as conflicts like that in Ukraine continue, Stoltenberg said.

"At least to manage a difficult relationship, to avoid miscalculations, misunderstandings that can trigger really serious incidents or accidents and make sure that if they happen, make sure that they don't spiral out of control."

Ukraine's Parliament on September 20 sent to the Constitutional Court a presidential bill amending Ukraine's Constitution regarding the strategic course of the state for obtaining full membership of Ukraine in the EU and

The bill proposes that Ukraine's irreversible course toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration be stipulated in the preamble of the Constitution along with the confirmation of European identity of the Ukrainian people.

The U.S. Air Force and eight other nations will participate next month in Ukraine’s largest aviation exercise, which aims to promote regional security and improve that country’s cooperation with NATO members.

The exercise, codenamed Clear Sky, is one of several joint and multinational exercises being conducted in Ukraine this year aimed at promoting regional security, defense officials said.

Ukraine is not a NATO member but has declared its interest in joining the alliance. Cooperation between NATO and Kyiv has expanded swiftly since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. (tl/ez)