Ukraine’s NATO Membership Action Plan was canceled following the example of Sweden and Finland
The NATO Membership Action Plan envisaged a rather lengthy reform process
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says that NATO countries have agreed to cancel Ukraine’s Membership Action Plan (MAP).
Thus, Ukraine can join NATO under a somewhat simplified procedure, similar to the one used by Finland, which has already joined the Alliance, and Sweden, which is awaiting accession.
Following intensive talks, NATO allies have reached consensus on removing MAP from Ukraine’s path to membership. I welcome this long-awaited decision that shortens our path to NATO. It is also the best moment to offer clarity on the invitation to Ukraine to become a member.
– Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) July 10, 2023
It should be noted that the MAP was introduced in 1999, following the experience of NATO enlargement after the accession of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The purpose of the MAP was to adapt the country to joining the Alliance by implementing reforms in a number of areas that were not directly related to defense, such as political, economic, and legal.
In particular, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia were the first to go through the MAP, which took them five years. However, this process could have taken quite a long time, for example, Montenegro received the MAP in 2009 and became a member in 2017, while North Macedonia held this status from 1999 to 2020.
And the only country to which the MAP is currently applied is Bosnia and Herzegovina, which received it in 2018 and declared its intention to join it back in 2010.
At the same time, MAP is not a legal requirement for joining NATO and may not be applied when a country already meets the Alliance’s requirements. But it should be noted that the global security situation today is fundamentally different than it was during the Cold War, and completely different than it was between 1991 and 2022.
However, it should be noted that it is unlikely that the abolition of the MAP for Ukraine means that our country will become a member of the Alliance right during the summit in Vilnius, which starts tomorrow, July 11. Most likely, this will be possible only after Ukraine’s victory.
