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Chapter 3: The Opening Up of the Alliance NATO's Partnership with Ukraine   The Charter for a Distinctive Partnership At the time of the July 1997 Summit Meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government in Madrid, NATO leaders and Ukrainian President Kuchma signed a “Charter for a Distinctive Partnership between NATO and Ukraine”, which had been initialled a few weeks earlier, in Sintra, Portugal. In signing the Charter, the member countries of NATO reaffirmed their support for Ukrainian sovereignty and independence, as well as its territorial integrity, democratic development, economic prosperity and status as a non-nuclear weapons state, and for the principle of inviolability of frontiers. These are regarded by the Alliance as key factors of stability and security in Central and Eastern Europe and on the continent as a whole. Ukraine’s decision to support the indefinite extension of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and its contribution to the withdrawal and dismantling of nuclear weapons based on its territory were warmly welcomed by NATO. The assurances given to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear weapon state party to the NPT, by all five nuclear-weapon states which are parties to the Treaty were also regarded as significant factors. In addition to the Memorandum of Understanding on Civil Emergency Planning and Disaster Preparedness, signed between NATO and Ukraine on 16 December 1997, which established civil emergency planning as a major area of cooperation, other cooperative programmes cover a broad range of topics (see above).