Belfast: The NATO alliance is nearing the establishment of a NATO-Ukraine Council in which all members can directly engage and consult with the embattled Eastern European country on “security issues of mutual concern” — potentially as a precursor to future alliance membership.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the new effort at the two-day defence ministers summit in Brussels, Belgium, and said that it would bring Ukraine “politically closer” to the alliance.
“This will be a body of 31 Allies and Ukraine [as] equal[s], sitting around the table with the same rights and the same possibilities to consult, and also make decisions together if we find that the right thing to do,” Stoltenberg said.
A first meeting of the Council, which will include Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is expected to be held at the NATO Heads of State Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, next month.
And while Stoltenberg explicitly ruled out Ukraine being offered an invitation to join NATO at the forthcoming summit, he gave a strong indication that membership could still become a reality.
“We all agree that Ukraine has already moved closer to NATO over the past decade,” he said. “We agree that NATO’s door is open. That Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance. And that it is a decision for allies and Ukraine to make. Russia does not have a veto.”
The lack of any timeline for Ukraine to join the alliance and the obvious implications the move would have in triggering the Article 5 collective defence clause seem to suggest membership will only be offered when the war with Russia is over. (Zelenskyy said last September Ukraine had formally applied for membership.)
“We do not know when this war ends,” added Stoltenberg. “But when it does, we need to put in place a framework that ensures Ukraine’s future security and make sure that history does not repeat itself.”
