After weeks of intense negotiations, NATO on Tuesday invited Ukraine to join the alliance at an unspecified time in the future, but only if the allies agree that the conditions are ripe and Ukraine has met. eligible to participate.
In his announcementAgreed by all 31 NATO members, the alliance said that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” promised to continue to assist the country in its fight against Russia and invited the alliance’s foreign ministers to assess the situation. periodically evaluate Ukraine’s progress in joining NATO standards — both in terms of democratization and military integration.
The wording essentially marks a victory for President Biden, who recently stated that “Ukraine is not ready to be a NATO member.” Just hours before the announcement was made, Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine harshly criticized “uncertainty” about Ukraine’s path to membership in the coalition.
Alliance leaders have struggled to agree on language on how to describe the timing and conditions for what everyone agreed would be Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO. The battle within NATO is not whether Ukraine joins, but how and under what conditions. Some countries want an invitation immediately after the war is over; Other countries, like the United States, want to avoid any notion that entry will happen automatically.
While Mr. Zelensky wants more, NATO officials argue that he will have much to bring home from this summit, with closer ties with NATO, a firmer commitment as a leader. membership and specific offers for longer-term financial and military assistance.
Asked about Mr. Zelensky’s concerns, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said that the most important thing right now is to make sure that his country wins the war against Russia because “unless Ukraine prevail, otherwise the matter of membership will not be discussed. Mr. Stoltenberg said the current commitments differed from the vague promise made in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia would one day join the alliance, without specifying how or when.
Here are some important new alliance commitments to Ukraine:
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NATO has agreed that Ukraine will not need to go through a preliminary and more time-consuming process to prepare an invitation to join the alliance, known as a Member Action Plan. Both Sweden and Finland are also allowed to skip such a process.
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The alliance is creating a NATO-Ukraine Council, a new joint body for Kiev and its allies to deepen their relationship before Ukraine becomes a member. The opening meeting Mr. Zelensky is expected to attend will take place on Wednesday in Vilnius.
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The communique stressed the urgent need to continue non-lethal assistance to Ukraine, expanding existing assistance programs to “help rebuild Ukraine’s security and defense sector and transition Ukraine to interoperability.” entirely with NATO.
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The document explicitly condemns Russia, calling on Moscow to “completely and unconditionally withdraw all its forces and equipment from Ukrainian territory within the internationally recognized borders, extending to the territorial sea of Ukraine.” this country”.
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It also condemned Russia’s “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and coercive nuclear signaling”, as well as plans to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus.
