It should be remembered that there is a Russian war in Ukraine. This will determine the structure and architecture of European security in the next 10 years. I think that with all due respect to the President of Ukraine Volodomir Zelenskiy – he has been asking and asking for Ukraine to be accepted into NATO for a year and a half, he has the right to ask for more than the other side wants to give him, Imants Lieģis, head of the Latvian Institute of Foreign Policy, expressed this opinion to the TV24 program “Globuss”. senior researcher.
“In this case, of course, Zelensky wants an immediate invitation for Ukraine to join NATO, but this is realistically impossible, considering that the Russian war is going on in the territory of Ukraine. NATO does not want to get involved in war immediately. It is immediately clear to everyone that Ukraine will not be invited to immediately join NATO,” says Liegis.
There is already a long-standing promise from 2008 – now the main issue is, first of all, to continue supporting the Ukrainian military in other matters as much as possible – economically, for example. A conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine and its possible scope was recently held in London; the sums are such as rarely appear to anyone in their dreams.
According to Liegis, in this situation it is very important to ensure that Russia also pays for its crimes committed in Ukraine. Therefore, the question is how NATO members can provide something to Ukraine as much as possible. This is about the NATO-Ukraine Council, which is closer consultation, which is more regular and close.
It would also be important to establish a stricter and safer “road map” to joining NATO after the end of the war. The problem is, none of us know when the war will end.
As the program points out, Imants Liegis was the ambassador at the time when the Russia-NATO Council was established, which was like a special throne for Putin, so that he could sit comfortably and say: “Well, okay, take your Baltics to NATO. That was the role of the Russian NATO Council. At the moment, the council’s role is to speed up the process and allow Zelenskiy to complete it.
As Liegis points out, it should be remembered that NATO could not provide any guarantees during the war. But there are negotiations between the main NATO members – the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany – which we will be able to give bilaterally to Ukraine in order to help even more.
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2023-07-12 04:12:19
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