NATO continues to adhere to the open door policy and Ukraine will be invited to the Alliance when all conditions are met. This was announced on July 11 by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller during a press briefing. He broadcast on the YouTube channel of the State Department.
Miller stressed that accepting Ukraine into the Alliance right now would be “unreasonable.” He explained that the “big reason” why Ukraine is not becoming a member of NATO now is that it would “instantly involve the United States in a war with [страной-агрессором] Russia”.
“One of the things that Russia was saying before this war started was that they strongly opposed Ukraine joining NATO and wanted to have an ironclad commitment that Ukraine would never join NATO. We have made it clear that this is not being considered, that we we adhere to the NATO open door policy. We underline this commitment today. We have clearly stated that Ukraine will become a member of NATO,” Miller said.
He noted that Ukraine cannot be accepted into the bloc until the war with Russia is over. He added: as long as the war continues, “we are all at war.”
The State Department spokesman stressed that the cancellation of the MAP for Ukraine on its way to NATO is recognition of the country’s successes that it has made over the “last few years”, especially since the full-scale Russian invasion.
“Ukraine is becoming more and more integrated, in particular politically, with NATO. You have seen how NATO trains Ukrainian forces, how NATO provides military systems,” he said.
Miller added that the US understands why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other government officials are turning to NATO, the US and other countries.
“Their country was invaded, their infrastructure was attacked, thousands of citizens died, we understand them. If we were in their place, we would make the same requests,” the US State Department spokesman added.
Context:
Ukraine stepped up cooperation with NATO in 2014 against the backdrop of Russia’s occupation of Crimea and the armed conflict in Donbas. The course towards joining the Alliance is fixed in the Constitution of Ukraine.
In 2018, NATO recognized Ukraine as a candidate country for membership in the Alliance, in 2020 Ukraine received the status of an enhanced opportunities partner.
On June 14, 2021, a NATO summit was held in Brussels, in the final communiqué of which it was noted that the Alliance supports Ukraine’s entry into NATO.
On September 30, 2022, after the president of the aggressor country, the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, announced the annexation of the occupied territory of Ukraine, Zelensky announced that Ukraine was applying to NATO under an accelerated procedure.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on November 30 that Ukraine’s victory should be a precondition for starting negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in NATO, and members of the Alliance are helping Ukraine in this.
Zelensky noted that a clear algorithm for Ukraine’s movement towards NATO membership is needed. “Concrete decisions regarding Ukraine’s further movement towards membership and security of our country for the period before joining the Alliance are what will allow us to consider the Vilnius summit a success,” the president said.
Declarations supporting the future entry of Ukraine into NATO, as of July 8, 2023, were signed by 23 countries out of 31 included in the bloc.
The final communique of the NATO summit, published on July 11, says that Ukraine no longer needs a MAP to join NATO, but so far it does not contain an invitation to the Alliance. “We will be ready to send Ukraine an invitation to join the Alliance when the allies agree to this and the relevant conditions are met,” the communiqué says.
#Ukraine #member #NATO #State #Department #explained #Ukraine #accepted #Alliance
2023-07-11 21:10:28
