Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he wanted Ukraine to receive an invitation to join NATO at this month’s Vilnius summit, which would be “a very concrete first step” and “very important.”
“We need a clear and intelligible signal at the Vilnius summit that Ukraine can become a full member of NATO after the war,” the Ukrainian head of state, together with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, told reporters in Kiev. , who is visiting. the country on the day of the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the European Union.
“This invitation from the alliance is a very concrete first step that would be very important for us,” he added.
Zelensky defended this Friday that “NATO without Ukraine is not NATO”, and that the military organization cannot do without a country with the greatest experience in defending its values and in the use of its weapons.
When questioned by the Efe agency about the expectations for the next allied summit in Vilnius and the possibility that the country will not receive guarantees in the NATO conclave that it will be accepted into the alliance after the end of the war, Zelensky said that “On the European continent there are armies with the experience of Ukraine”.
“And God forbid there is a war in another European country,” he added.
Ukraine has consistently appealed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to join the Alliance once the war with Russia ends.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian president asked that, at the annual summit of the Atlantic Alliance, scheduled for July 11 and 12, in Vilnius, specific data for NATO entry be defined.
“We are a responsible state and we understand that we cannot be a member of NATO in times of war. But we have to be sure that after the war we will be, ”he told the Ukrainian parliament.
The allies are still looking for a common thread on the security guarantees they are willing to give Kiev, beyond the question of its possible accession.
On the 17th of this month, US President Joe Biden warned that Ukraine will not receive preferential treatment when the question of joining NATO is raised.
“[A Ucrânia] must meet all criteria. So we are not going to make it easy,” Biden told reporters.
At the summit to be held in the Lithuanian capital, Jens Stoltenberg already assured that Ukraine will not be invited to join the Alliance, but stressed that NATO hopes, nevertheless, to hold the first meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council with Volodymyr Zelensky in the top.
Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia had put a stop to the neighboring country’s accession to the Atlantic Alliance, a threat to its sovereignty, according to the Kremlin.
The Russian offensive in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, has already convinced Finland and Sweden to end decades of neutrality and join the organization.
Finland is already a member state of the organization, while Sweden is waiting for Turkey and Hungary to give the ‘green light’ for membership.
Source: TSF
