“Opening accession talks won’t drag the Alliance into the war with Russia — in fact, it will prevent it”.
Alyona Getmanchuk and Olena Halushka in their article for POLITICO expalined, why Ukraine should be invited to NATO during upcoming Vilnius summit.
Key messages:
- The upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius has a historic mission to fix the strategic mistakes of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and NATO’s 2008 Bucharest Summit. It is a chance to introduce effective security guarantees for Ukraine.
- The truth is, Ukraine is an asset. For over 15 months, the country’s armed forces have been repelling an invasion by the so-called second-largest army in the world, and shielding NATO from “the most significant direct threat.”
- Many also fear that inviting Ukraine to join the Alliance at the Vilnius Summit would mean NATO soldiers marching into Ukraine to fight the Russian army early next morning. But it’s enough to simply take a look at the official NATO accession procedure to understand that’s absolutely not the case.
- Article 5 applies only to full members, and getting full membership is preceded by a complex procedure that took Finland a full year and Sweden is still in the middle of. So, by the time Ukraine actually became a NATO member, it would have had many opportunities to regain control over its territory.
- According to research we conducted at the New Europe Center, which tracks Ukraine’s implementation of NATO principles and standards, in 2021 the country had already implemented more standards than some current NATO members.
- Granting Ukraine an invitation to NATO and starting the negotiating process would similarly give its defense and security reforms a huge push as well.
- This is a time of historic challenges that require historic leadership, and the West mustn’t be afraid — Ukrainians are not.Full article: https://politi.co/443292P
