Ukraine will become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, since all NATO allies have already agreed to this, said Secretary of the military bloc Jens Stoltenberg in an interview with Ukrainian television channel 1 + 1. Stoltenberg cited other countries as an example, recalling that Montenegro joined NATO only two years ago, and Northern Macedonia should join the alliance in a few months.
“Poland, the Baltic countries - no one even in dreams could imagine that they would be in NATO. Now they are full members of NATO. We will help you strengthen reforms, modernize society and thus join NATO, ”Stoltenberg said.
Answering a question from a Ukrainian journalist about whether NATO intends to leave Ukraine as a neutral buffer zone between Russia and the EU, Stoltenberg said that "Ukraine is a partner." The official explained that NATO has 40 partner countries and for some of them this status is only the first step towards membership in the alliance.
“It should be understood that there is a great distance between the status of“ no relationship ”and“ full membership ”. Therefore, while working to provide Ukraine with full membership, we should think about what we can do together, ”Stoltenberg explained.
"Provocative effect"
The NATO Secretary General made similar statements, speaking in late October from the rostrum of the Rada. Stoltenberg emphasized then that the doors to the alliance remain open for Ukraine.
However, at the same time, in an interview with the European publication “European Truth”, he emphasized that the issue of Ukraine’s receipt of the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) - as well as the issue of its entry into the alliance - is “out of focus”.
“The problem on the path to membership is not compliance with formalities, the problem is reality. And when there will be political will on the part of the alliance members, when Ukraine will meet the standards (NATO. - RT ), when there will be political agreement, then there is no doubt that the formalities will be resolved, ”Stoltenberg emphasized.
Recall that the two-day visit of the NATO delegation to Ukraine began on October 30: representatives of 29 countries participating in the alliance led by the organization’s secretary general arrived in Kiev.
- Jens Stoltenberg
- Reuters
- © Gleb Garanich
Speaking at a joint briefing with the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine on European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Dmitry Kuleba, Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Kiev’s efforts to deploy forces in the area of Stanitsa Luganskaya in the Donbass. According to the NATO Secretary General, much remains to be done for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, as the ceasefire continues to be violated.
At the same time, the leadership of NATO assigns all responsibility for the situation in the region to Moscow.
“We at NATO emphasize that Russia has a clear responsibility for the implementation of the Minsk agreements. In particular, it should withdraw all troops from Eastern Ukraine and stop destabilizing Ukraine, ”Stoltenberg said.
The statements of the leadership of the North Atlantic Alliance have responded to the Russian Foreign Ministry. As stated in the commentary of the official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, NATO "continues to behave destructively," contributing to increased tension, and "presents a set of groundless claims and accusations against Russia."
“Obviously a destabilizing and provocative impact on the situation in Ukraine of NATO’s military support for Kiev,” the statement said.
Recall that at the 2008 alliance summit in Bucharest, it was decided that Ukraine and Georgia could expect to be included in the alliance in the future, the secretary general of the military bloc, who at that time was Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said at the end of the meeting. The discussion about the possibility of Ukraine’s joining NATO caused an ambiguous reaction both in the alliance and in Ukraine. So, for example, France and Germany opposed the integration of Ukraine into the military bloc.
As stated in 2008 by the French Prime Minister (then occupied the post of François Fillon. - RT ), the accession of Georgia and Ukraine to the alliance could upset the balance of influence between Europe and Russia.
- Bucharest NATO Summit 2008
- Reuters
- © Francois Lenoir
In Ukraine, the decision to integrate with NATO was met with protests, and the Party of Regions, led by Viktor Yanukovych, participated in the organization of the rallies. Surveys conducted at that time in the country showed a low level of support for the idea of Ukraine joining NATO. Thus, a survey conducted by the Sofia Center for Social Research in 2008 showed that 64.3% of Ukrainians had a negative attitude to this idea.
The most negative attitude towards integration into NATO was manifested in the south-east of the country and in Crimea, which at that time was part of Ukraine. During a popular referendum held on peninsula by public structures in 2006, almost 99% of Crimeans spoke out against integration into NATO. As the organizers of the voting noted then, although the referendum had no legal force, its results expressed the attitude of the population towards initiatives to join the alliance.
Similar results were shown by a survey conducted in 2012 in Ukraine by the sociological group “Rating”. The study showed that support for integration into NATO was only 19% across the country. The idea of joining NATO was actively supported only in the western regions, where the percentage of positive answers reached about 50%.
Nevertheless, the political forces that came to power as a result of the coup in 2014 immediately announced their intention to lead Ukraine to NATO membership. At the end of the same year, the Parliament abolished the non-aligned status of the country. In 2016, joining the alliance was defined as the goal of the state’s foreign policy, and in February 2019, the course on membership in the organization was also fixed in the Ukrainian constitution.
With the victory in the presidential election of Vladimir Zelensky, the situation has not changed - the new Ukrainian leader said that he will support the course towards the country's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance. At the same time, Zelensky noted that he intends to raise this issue with a plebiscite.
“And when the Ukrainians are ready, we will certainly put this issue to a referendum and Ukraine will be in NATO,” the Ukrainian president emphasized.
However, conducting such a survey is not a prerequisite, unlike, for example, bringing the country's armed forces and political system in line with NATO standards. In addition, among the key requirements is the absence of territorial, ethnic and political conflicts in the candidate country and the settlement of existing international disputes by peaceful means. It is also necessary that the country does not have foreign military bases.
Problem integration
If before the Euromaidan, the presence of the Russian Navy base in Sevastopol was an obstacle for Ukraine’s accession to NATO, then after 2014 the country's integration into the alliance was complicated due to territorial disputes with Russia, experts say.
In a recent speech to the cadets of the Maritime Academy in Odessa, Jens Stoltenberg said that Moscow’s position on Ukraine’s movement in NATO does not matter.
The Alliance’s Secretary General emphasized that Russia “has no voting rights”, as well as “a legal or real platform to have any influence on such a decision.”
However, as explained by RT Commercial Director of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine Alexei Leonkov in an RT commentary, statements by the NATO leadership about indifference to Moscow’s position do not quite correspond to reality.
- Vladimir Zelensky
- globallookpress.com
- © Danil Shamkin / ZUMAPRESS.com
“First of all, you need to understand that the West does not intend to directly conflict with Russia, especially in Europe. Therefore, Jens Stoltenberg makes such twofold statements, on the one hand talking about NATO’s openness to Ukraine, and on the other hand, making it clear that these prospects are unclear. NATO understands that Russia and Belarus will oppose Ukraine’s joining the alliance, ”the expert explained.
According to Leonkov, the fact that Ukraine has territorial claims against Russia does not allow it to count on joining the alliance.
“Although Ukraine is a tidbit for NATO where it is possible to deploy its military bases, air defense and missile defense, the alliance hardly wants to get involved in other people's conflicts. Even Montenegro was able to join the bloc only after the echo of the Yugoslav war died down, ”the expert noted.
In addition, there is no reason to believe that the integration of Ukraine into the alliance will be approved by all countries of the bloc, which is another prerequisite for integration, Leonkov said.
“Today there is no unity on this issue in NATO. Some members of the alliance will vote against Ukraine’s entry, ”the expert added.
A similar point of view is shared by an expert at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies Sergey Ermakov. The expert recalled the position of the Hungarian leadership, which over the past years has blocked the work of the Ukraine-NATO commission at the level of ministers and heads of state. In late October, Budapest vetoed the declaration of permanent representatives to NATO over Ukraine due to the fact that the document did not oblige Kiev to respect the rights of the Hungarian population. Only after these requirements were taken into account did Hungary unblock the adoption of the document.
“Kiev agreed to follow these requirements, so the situation softened. However, this case once again showed how large the field for the contradictions between the NATO allies over Ukraine is, ”Yermakov explained in a comment to RT.
According to the expert, the alliance has little interest in Ukraine’s membership.
“In fact, today the North Atlantic Alliance does not need to accept Ukraine, since NATO is already free to use Ukrainian territory for its own purposes. But the logic of NATO expansion forces the bloc’s leadership to make statements regarding Ukraine and Georgia, as well as confirm their intentions with practical measures, ”Yermakov concluded.