Kuleba: NATO does not shine for Ukraine, not even the conditions for joining the Alliance have been named
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that NATO did not name the conditions that Ukraine must fulfill to join the Alliance, and it is not known who should formulate them.
Kuleba said this in an interview with Radio Liberty, Espresso reports.
He said that it is not yet known what conditions Ukraine must fulfill to become a member of NATO.
“It is not known. We don’t. That’s the problem. That is, when will the conditions be met? What are the conditions? Who should formulate them? What are they?” the Foreign Minister said.
According to Kuleba, the most conservative were the United States and Germany, the countries that provided the most aid to Ukraine, so it is difficult to criticize them.
“But, knowing many of the nuances of what was going on behind the scenes, I can say that the United States played an important role, a decisive role, in getting the word ‘invitation’ to appear in the text at all. Not in the wording that satisfies us, but in principle. And Germany, in the end, did not resist this either. So the world is a little more complicated than just black and white,” Kuleba said.
He said that if the Allies had not looked at Ukraine’s accession to NATO through the prism of Russia’s position, “the wording would be different today.”
What we know about the NATO summit and Ukraine’s accession to the Alliance
On July 11-12, a summit of NATO leaders takes place in Vilnius. The meetings are held at the level of country leaders and governments. Lithuania is hosting the summit for the first time. The events take place at the LITEXPO congress center. Thousands of military personnel ensure security during the events, and the sky is protected by Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems.
The meetings are attended by leaders of 31 NATO countries, including U.S. President Joe Biden, and delegations from Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Ukraine, and Sweden. In total, more than 2,400 members of 48 foreign delegations, including up to 40 heads of state and 150 other high-ranking government officials, were expected to arrive in Vilnius. The summit is also attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In particular, on July 11, the NATO summit in Vilnius adopted a package of decisions regarding Ukraine: the Membership Action Plan phase is canceled, and the country will receive an invitation to join the Alliance after fulfilling the requirements for accession and subject to the consent of all allies.
The Allies agreed on a final communiqué on Ukraine and stated that they remembered the 2008 commitment that Ukraine would become a NATO member. The document also recognized that today Ukraine’s path to full Euro-Atlantic integration has gone beyond the need for a Membership Action Plan. Allies emphasized that Ukraine is becoming more operationally and politically integrated with the Alliance and has made significant progress on its reform agenda. It is added that NATO foreign ministers will regularly assess progress through the Annual National Program.
