After two days of meeting, the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched a forum for relations with Ukraine. The members of the G7 promised kyiv long-term military aid while the conflict lasts Russiaafter the president Volodymyr Zelensky criticize his allies for delaying his country’s entry into NATO.
In any case, the president of United States, Joe Biden and the rest of the alliance leaders they met with Zelensky in the new NATO-Ukraine Council where consultations can be held and emergency meetings called in case of need while the conflict lasts with Russia that has already been more than 500 days.
NATO continues without adding Ukraine
The objective of this union is to redouble NATO’s effort to be as available as possible to Ukraine without the need to incorporate it into the group. The founding treaty of the group has a clause that establishes that all its members must come to the defense of anyone else who is under attack. This implies that if Ukraine were to join the union, the alliance would have to declare war on Russia.
In this sense, in the first statement that was published yesterday, the leaders maintained that Ukraine could join the group “when allies agree and conditions are met”. However, Zelensky He was not satisfied with the decision and said that it was “absurd” that a military alliance whose purpose is to contain Russia should not have the incorporation of Ukraine on its schedule.
Outside the Summit G7 leaders met with Zelensky again and announced a long-term military support plan that includes the delivery of war equipment to the Ukrainian forces. In a statement, they stated that will work “on specific, bilateral and long-term security agreements and commitments to ensure a sustainable force capable of defending Ukraine now and deterring Russian aggression.”
This includes “security assistance and modern military equipment, in land, air and sea domains, prioritizing air defense, artillery and long-range devices, armored vehicles and other key capabilities,” the note added.
“We will help them build a solid and effective defense by land, sea and airBiden maintained, who later added: “The future of Ukraine is in NATO“.
“The results of the summit are good, but ideally there would be a formal invitation” to Ukraine to join NATO, he said. Zelensky at a press conference with the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg. “NATO needs us as much as we need NATO“, he remarked.
For his part, Stoltenberg declared: “Today we meet as equals.” “I look forward to the day we meet as allies,” he added.
What will be the next NATO inclusion?
The possible entry of Sweden into the alliance was also discussed at the Vilnius summit, after Stoltenberg assured that the Turkish presidentRecep Tayyip Erdoganpromised him and the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, that will send Sweden’s Accession Protocol to the Turkish Parliament “as soon as possible” for a vote.
The agreement, the result of intense negotiations, leaves the door open for a new expansion of the alliance in Northern Europeafter Finland became NATO’s 31st member last April.
As part of the agreement, Stoltenberg said Erdogan promised to speed up parliamentary treatment of Sweden’s accession law. to NATO. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another holdout, is expected to make the same commitment.
Erdogan clarified today that his country’s Parliament will not be able to ratify this accession before October due to the summer recess of Congress.
“There are two months of parliamentary recess” and when the parliamentarians return “there will be many legislative proposals to be discussed in order of importance“, explained the Turkish president, responding to a journalist who asked him if the accession could be ratified in October.
“But our intention is to end this as soon as possible,” Erdogan said on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
“When the session of Parliament opens, I think your president will agree to give priority to this agreement“, he added.
Source: Ambito
