NATO should remove Ukraine's membership action plan requirement
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg states that Ukraine is much closer to NATO.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a news conference in Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, May 30, 2023, ahead of the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting which begins on Wednesday. (AP)
NATO allies should agree to remove the requirement for Ukraine to submit a Membership Action Plan (MAP) in order to join the alliance in the future, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
"Ukraine has come a long way since we made the decision in 2008 that the next step would be a Membership Action Plan. Ukraine is much closer to NATO, so I think the time has come to reflect that in NATO decisions", Stoltenberg said before a summit of NATO leaders in Vilnius.
"All put together, including that we'll make clear that Ukraine will become a member, we'll remove the Membership Action Plan, (....) will send a very strong and positive message from NATO to Ukraine."
This comes after the Ukrainian Defense Ministry stated last month on June 10 that NATO will provide Ukraine with a road map to join the military coalition during the upcoming Vilnius summit held by the alliance, stressing that the Eastern European country will only be eligible for one to two years after the end of the war.
In his comments, Volodymyr Gavrilov, Ukraine's Defense Minister], noted that at the summit in July, NATO countries "will agree on a certain procedure for our accession, which will be formalized," the Ministry said on Telegram.
Ukraine must first "prevail"
In April, Stoltenberg had said that the "first step is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as an independent nation."
The country "will get what it wants in a certain format," Gavrilov continued.
"Already now, at the summit in Vilnius, Ukraine should understand that after the war, say, within a year or two, after certain procedures are carried out, we will become members of NATO."
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that an act of aggression made on one member of the US-led military bloc shall be regarded as an attack on them all and requires an immediate response. This clause has raised concerns over dragging the alliance to an undesirable war such as the one currently occurring in Ukraine.
