From the:
Vilnius Summit Communiqué
Issued by NATO Heads of State and Government
participating in the meeting of the North
Atlantic Council in Vilnius 11 July 2023:
11. We fully support Ukraine’s right to
choose its own security arrangements.
Ukraine’s future is in NATO. We reaffirm the
commitment we made at the 2008 Summit in
Bucharest that Ukraine will become a member
of NATO, and today we recognise that
Ukraine’s path to full Euro-Atlantic
integration has moved beyond the need for
the Membership Action Plan. Ukraine has
become increasingly interoperable and
politically integrated with the Alliance,
and has made substantial progress on its
reform path. In line with the 1997 Charter
on a Distinctive Partnership between NATO
and Ukraine and the 2009 Complement, Allies
will continue to support and review
Ukraine’s progress on interoperability as
well as additional democratic and security
sector reforms that are required. NATO
Foreign Ministers will regularly assess
progress through the adapted Annual National
Programme. The Alliance will support Ukraine
in making these reforms on its path towards
future membership. We will be in a
position to extend an invitation to Ukraine
to join the Alliance when Allies agree and
conditions are met.
The statement 'when Allies agree and
conditions are met' sets arguably a higher bar
than the
2008 Bucharest Summit Declaration had
promised:
23. NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s
Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in
NATO. We agreed today that these countries
will become members of NATO. Both nations
have made valuable contributions to Alliance
operations. We welcome the democratic
reforms in Ukraine and Georgia and look
forward to free and fair parliamentary
elections in Georgia in May. The Membership
Action Plan (MAP) is the next step for
Ukraine and Georgia on their direct way to
membership. Today we make clear that we
support these countries’ applications for
MAP. Therefore we will now begin a period of
intensive engagement with both at a high
political level to address the questions
still outstanding pertaining to their MAP
applications. We have asked Foreign
Ministers to make a first assessment of
progress at their December 2008 meeting.
Foreign Ministers have the authority to
decide on the MAP applications of Ukraine
and Georgia.
Also note that the 'conditions', just like
the rules in the 'rules based order', are
undefined. It seems like any NATO member will be
able to define its own ones.
Added:
Also note this from the:
Pre-Summit press conference
by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of
the NATO Summit in Vilnius
Iryna Somer, Interfax Ukraine
Thank you Oana. Iryna Somer, Ukrainian News
Agency Interfax Ukraine. I have follow up
question on Mindaugas, regarding
declaration. I do understand you can't
comment on the language which will in
decleration regarding membership. But can
you tell us how far or how close Allies are
regarding wording in the declaration
regarding a possible membership for Ukraine,
which also will be satisfactory for Kyiv?
Thank you.
NATO Secretary General Jens
Stoltenberg
[...]
We will provide support to Ukraine for as
long as it takes. Because unless
Ukraine wins this war, there's no membership
issue to be discussed at all.
Ukraine's victory in the war, which is
unachievable, is now a main condition for its
admittance to NATO.
It wasn't what the Ukrainian government had
wanted to hear.
Via Strana.news (machine
translation):
"Unprecedented and absurd." Zelensky criticized
the allies for the lack of an invitation to NATO
- 13:59, Today
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
commented on Western leaders' plans not to
include any specifics on Ukraine's NATO
membership in a forthcoming statement.
“Now, on the way to Vilnius, we received
signals that language without Ukraine is
being discussed. And I want to emphasize
that this wording is only by invitation, and
not by Ukraine’s membership. It is
unprecedented and absurd when there is no
time frame for the invitation (! ), and for
the membership of Ukraine; and when
some strange wording about "conditions" is
added even for inviting Ukraine ...
It seems that there is no readiness
either to invite Ukraine to NATO or to make
it a member of the Alliance. Consequently,
there remains the possibility of bargaining
Ukraine's membership in NATO - in
negotiations with Russia. And for Russia,
this means motivation to continue its
terror. Uncertainty is weakness. And I will
frankly discuss this at the summit,"
Zelensky wrote.
Well. The little comedian seems disappointed.
As if the whole play had not been obvious from
the very beginning. Since 2008 the Ukraine was
to be used as a tool to nag Russia. It is
otherwise of little value. It will end up as a
discarded rag while NATO will, in the end, again
recognize the Russian Federation as the super
power that that it is. NATO will have to relearn
to listen to and negotiate with it.
Now lets wait and see what NATO's climb down
will do to the morale and motivations of the
Ukrainian army and people.
