defensive alliance
Zelenskyj’s hopes of joining NATO are disappointed
Shake hands: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (l.) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj. photo
© Efrem Lukatsky/AP/dpa
How to deal with Ukraine’s accession hopes? This question has been the subject of long debates in NATO recently. Now the heads of state and government have agreed on a compromise.
NATO makes the attacked by Russia Ukraine hopes to join the defense alliance, but attaches conditions to a formal invitation. This emerges from a statement adopted at the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, which is available to the German Press Agency.
Specifically, the text says: “Ukraine’s future is in NATO. We reaffirm our commitment made at the Bucharest Summit in 2008 for Ukraine to become a member of NATO (…).” According to the statement, however, NATO will only be able to invite Ukraine to join an alliance “if the allies are in agreement and the conditions are met.” “Additional necessary reforms in the area of democracy and the security sector” are mentioned as concrete examples.
The restriction addresses the reservations of countries such as Germany and the USA. In the negotiations, they had insisted that NATO membership should continue to be linked to the fulfillment of conditions. For example, according to Alliance standards, the military must be subject to civilian and democratic control.
The statement leaves it unclear whether Ukraine will only be able to join NATO once all areas occupied by Russia have been liberated or territorial conflicts have been contractually regulated. The alliance is thus theoretically keeping open the possibility of accepting Ukraine even if, for example, a “frozen conflict” continues after a ceasefire.
Zelenskyj is upset
For the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, however, that is clearly not enough. Having fought for a formal invitation for months, his hopes are now dashed.
Even before the formal decision, he vented his anger on the way to Vilnius. “It looks like there is no willingness to invite Ukraine into NATO or make it a member of the alliance,” he wrote on Twitter. “For Russia, this is a motivation to continue its terror.” This vagueness is a sign of the weakness of the West. “And I will address that openly at the summit.”
Worried about an unpredictable reaction Russia
There had been a dispute in the alliance for weeks about the prospect of Ukraine joining. Eastern Allies in particular support Ukraine’s desire to receive a formal invitation at the summit to join once Russia’s war of aggression has ended. In the end, however, they were unable to assert themselves against countries such as Germany and the USA.
Another reason for the non-invitation is concerns about an unpredictable reaction by Russia, which is trying to prevent the country from joining NATO with its war against Ukraine.
As a compromise, the NATO states have now agreed to promise Ukraine not to insist on the usual pre-accession program before the intended admission. “This will turn Ukraine’s accession process from a two-stage process to a one-stage process,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after the agreement.
NATO-Ukraine Council will be upgraded and cooperation strengthened
In addition, NATO already wants to significantly expand cooperation with Ukraine. To this end, the existing NATO-Ukraine Commission will be upgraded to a NATO-Ukraine Council. This should make it possible to discuss key security issues at eye level and also to make decisions together. The commission was set up primarily to discuss reforms needed to join the western military alliance.
The new council is now scheduled to meet for the first time this Wednesday at the summit at the level of heads of state and government. Selenskyj will then sit there on an equal footing with the heads of state and government of the 31 NATO countries.
In principle, the NATO states want to continue to provide support to Ukraine “as long as necessary”. “We stand steadfast in our commitment to continue increasing political and practical support for Ukraine as it defends its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders,” the text reads.
In order to “support the deterrence and defense of Ukraine in the short, medium and long term”, it was agreed to further develop the current aid program into a multi-year program for Ukraine. This support is intended to help rebuild Ukraine’s security and defense sector and create the technical and operational conditions for military cooperation.
After the agreement, Stoltenberg spoke of a strong overall package that would bring Ukraine closer to NATO and was a clear path to membership.