NATO advises Kiev not to rush toward membership
3 Min Read
NATO sees it best for Ukraine to slow its roll regarding its accession to the alliance.
-
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks at a news conference at Kastellet in Kommandantgaarden, Copenhagen, Denmark May 19, 2022 (Reuters)
Ukraine should not rush toward joining NATO, and should instead move "step by step", NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
"I think it's important now that we take it step by step - the most important and urgent step is to ensure that Ukraine prevails, and that's exactly what we are doing," Stoltenberg said after a meeting that brought together the foreign ministers of the alliance's member states in Bucharest, Romania.
According to the NATO chief, there are different stages of cooperation for a state seeking to become a full-fledged member of the alliance.
"We need to develop closer and closer partnership, both political and practical, with Ukraine," he explained. "This will strengthen their institutions, it will help them to move from Soviet-era equipment standards to modern NATO standards. "
Stoltenberg then explained that closer cooperation with NATO countries would be beneficial for Ukraine, as it would increase operation comparability and help Kiev move closer to NATO membership.
NATO states confirmed at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Georgia and Ukraine were eligible for accession to the alliance. However, the issue was postponed indefinitely.
The issue was re-addressed during a June NATO summit in Brussels, where the member states supported the accession of both countries into the alliance.
The member states also stressed the need for relevant reforms in both states, not providing the timing of the possible accession of both countries into NATO.
Talk earlier in the year about the possible accession of Ukraine into NATO has been the main reason behind the outbreak of war in the country, after Kiev, Brussels, and Washington were warned against the move by Moscow, though the warnings fell on deaf ears.
Reports at the time said that Russia obtained intelligence that NATO was planning on deploying four military divisions in Ukraine amid concerns in Mosow about an eastward expansion for the Western alliance.
Russia had for months been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened simultaneously with an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.
Meanwhile, amid the tensions between NATO and Russia, and after the alliance started bolstering Ukraine, France's Defense Minister criticized Brussels, saying the alliance's priority was to defend its members and that Ukraine was not one of them.
Currently, there are talks about Finland and Sweden joining the alliance. On July 5, the permanent representatives of NATO member states signed accession protocols for the two Scandanavian countries at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.
All members of the bloc have to ratify the protocols according to their national legislation.
Out of all the NATO members, Hungary and Turkey are the only countries that still did not clear Sweden and Finland's accession.
Last week, the Hungarian Prime Minister said the parliament plans to ratify NATO membership for Finland and Sweden in early 2023.
