NATO chief rejects Ukraine’s membership bid,Ahead of the US-led military bloc’s summit in Vilnius, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg did not provide Ukraine with a concrete offer of membership. Instead, he suggested that Ukraine should have the opportunity to expedite its path to joining the bloc.
During a press conference, Stoltenberg assured journalists that NATO leaders would send a positive signal to Kiev about its desire to become a member of the military organization. However, several bloc members have clearly expressed their opposition to Ukraine’s membership as long as it remains involved in a conflict with Russia.
Stoltenberg proposed that member states eliminate the requirement for a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine. This would change the accession process from a two-step to a one-step process, as he explained during the press conference.
The NATO chief outlined a multi-year program for Ukraine, consisting of three elements. One element involves Ukraine aligning itself more closely with NATO by ensuring full interoperability between its forces and NATO forces, primarily through the use of Western-made weapons.
Additionally, a new Ukraine-NATO council will be established to enhance Ukraine’s political ties with NATO. The inaugural meeting of this council, which Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will attend, is scheduled for Wednesday.
Ukrainian officials, including President Zelensky, have been urging NATO to provide a clear roadmap for Ukraine’s accession during the summit in Vilnius. It has been reported that Zelensky threatened to boycott the event if this expectation was not met.
However, countries like the US and Germany have opposed the requests made by nations such as Poland and the Baltic states to grant Ukraine’s membership. US President Joe Biden stated in a recent interview with CNN that Ukraine is not yet prepared to join NATO and that a rational path must be laid out for Ukraine to qualify for membership. He considered it premature to vote on the issue at present.
The idea of establishing a Ukraine-NATO council had been reported in Western media before the summit. A similar council was formed with Russia in the late 1990s to address Moscow’s concerns over NATO’s expansion in Europe. The New York Times suggested that Ukraine could assume a role within NATO similar to the one previously held by Russia, as explained by Washington last month.
The Lithuanian President, Gitanas Nauseda, who hosted the summit, urged member states to acknowledge that the treaty with Russia was effectively “dead” as they traveled to Vilnius.
NATO initially pledged that Ukraine would eventually join the alliance during a summit in Bucharest in 2008. At the time, Russia warned that such a move would cross a red line, considering NATO’s expansion toward its borders a threat to its national security.
In 2021, a year before the conflict in Ukraine erupted, Russia attempted to negotiate a partial reversal of NATO’s advancement. However, the proposal was rejected by the US and its allies.
