The admission of new countries to NATO requires the unanimous agreement of the members of the alliance.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fičo vowed on Sunday to block Ukraine’s NATO membership as long as he is in charge of the country’s government.
NATO’s leadership wants Ukraine to join the military alliance after its war with Russia ends in order to prevent further aggression from Moscow, but Fitzo’s statement highlights the political difficulties likely to arise in pursuing that. target.
“As long as I am the head of the Slovak government, I will direct the parliamentarians under my control as party president [του κυβερνώντος Smer] to never agree to Ukraine joining NATO,” he said on the weekly show “O pěť minut dvanásť” (5 minutes to 12).
Fitzo’s comments contrasted sharply with the stance of Mark Rutte, NATO’s new secretary general, who said on Thursday that “Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever and will continue on that path until you join of our alliance”.
Under NATO’s founding treaty of 1949, decisions on enlargement are taken “by unanimous agreement,” meaning that Fico’s opposition to Ukraine joining the alliance could indeed block its entry at least until the end of the current term. the Slovak leader’s term in power in 2027. Other Russia-friendly NATO members could also seek to thwart Ukraine’s membership ambitions.
A similar situation played out following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO but were blocked by Turkey and Hungary for a year and 10 months. While Turkey has objected to the activities of Kurdish activists in Sweden and restrictions on Western arms exports to Ankara, the reasons for Hungary’s resistance have never been made clear. Stockholm and Helsinki were finally introduced on April 4 this year.
Since winning re-election last fall, Fitzo has reversed the previous cabinet’s policy of providing material support to Ukraine in its war with invading Russian troops, and has instead promised that his government will not send “either a bullet’, while he has approached Moscow with the authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of neighboring Hungary.
Last Thursday, Fitzo promised to do “everything possible to renew economic and formal relations with Russia.”
After his appearance on the Sunday talk show, Fitzo doubled down on that pledge, offering to visit Moscow next May for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, “if they invite me.”
Speaking at a ceremony commemorating the October 6, 1944 arrival of troops from the former Soviet Union at the difficult Dukla Pass near Slovakia’s border with Poland, Fico went on to stress that Russian sacrifices helped free Slovakia from Nazi rule.
“Freedom came from the East,” he said, “and absolutely nothing can change that truth.”
Source: Politico
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