The Vilnius Rebuff
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NATO rejects Ukraine’s application saying Kiev will join the military bloc in the near future once conditions are met and allies agree
NATO has reaffirmed its readiness to grant Ukraine membership at some point in the future. A joint statement released during the annual summit of the US-led bloc said Kiev would be invited to join only “when allies agree and conditions are met,” but it will be allowed to bypass the so-called Membership Action Plan that is usually required for candidate members.
“We reaffirm the commitment we made at the 2008 summit in Bucharest that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, and today we recognize that Ukraine’s path to full Euro-Atlantic integration has moved beyond the need for the Membership Action Plan,” the statement read.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena Zelenska react next to France’s President Emmanuel Macron and French President’s wife Brigitte Macron ahead of the social dinner during the NATO summit, at the Presidential Palace in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11, 2023. LUDOVIC MARIN/Pool via REUTERS
Ukraine has become “increasingly interoperable and politically integrated with the US-led bloc,” it stated. It also outlined the need for “additional democratic and security sector reforms” in the country. “The alliance will support Ukraine in making these reforms on its path towards future membership. We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met,” the statement concluded.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg further elaborated on the matter at a press conference, stating that the bloc must first ensure that Ukraine achieves a “victory” in its ongoing conflict with Russia. Should Kiev not succeed, its NATO membership will be out of the question, he warned.
The pledge falls short of calls by top Ukrainian officials, who have repeatedly urged the US-led alliance to accept the country right away or at least produce an official “invitation” for it at the summit.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky made an apparent last-ditch attempt to influence the bloc’s joint statement hours before it was released, taking to social media to criticize NATO and demand “respect” for Ukraine from the alliance. “It’s unprecedented and absurd when [a] time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership. While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote, referring to a draft of the document that was partially leaked to the media.
The Ukrainian leader called NATO’s “indecisiveness” a sign of the bloc’s “weakness.”
Allowing Ukraine to join NATO at the moment would lead the US-led military bloc “into a war with Russia,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said. A “reform path for Ukraine” to become a NATO member will be drawn up but “I can’t put a timetable on it,” Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday at the bloc’s summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
“Today, we’re not going to define how the war [between Ukraine and Russia ends], we’re not going to lay down the definition for that,” Sullivan stated. He added that “there have been historical circumstances where you’ve seen different ways of looking at that question.”
Sullivan also spoke about the agenda for talks between US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, which are scheduled to take place during the event in Vilnius. The two leaders will discuss “how the US alongside our… partners are prepared to make long-term commitments to help Ukraine defend itself now and to deter future aggression,” he said.During an interview with CNN on Sunday, Biden argued it was “premature” to speak about NATO membership for Ukraine, adding that Kiev needs to carry out more reforms and achieve “democratisation” before it can become part of the bloc.
Moscow, which views NATO as hostile and vigorously opposes its eastward expansion, highlighted Kiev’s push to join the alliance among the main reasons for launching its military operation against Ukraine in February 2022.
Source NATO/Reuters/TASS/RT
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