Rutte: “Ukraine will become a NATO member. One day”
17 October 2024 11:13
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said that Ukraine will join the Alliance as its 33rd (or 34th) member in the future. He made the announcement at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday, reports "Komersant Ukrainian" citing Evropeiska Pravda.
This statement came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented his “victory plan”, one of the points of which is to receive an invitation to NATO. At the same time, Rutte did not specify whether the Allies had changed their position on this issue.
“At the moment, it looks like Ukraine will be the 33rd member. But perhaps someone else will come out ahead. But Ukraine will be a NATO member in the future. This is what we decided in Washington. So the question now is about the chronology,”
– stressed the NATO Secretary General.
According to him, the allies are currently working to prepare for Ukraine’s membership.
“So if there is a specific question ‘When? But we are working on all of these areas so that they can actually become a NATO member one day,” he said,
– Rutte added.
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Ukraine-NATO
Relations between Ukraine and NATO began shortly after Ukraine gained independence in 1991. In 1994, Ukraine joined the Partnership for Peace programme, which was the first step towards cooperation with the Alliance. In 1997, the Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between Ukraine and NATO was signed, which defined the main areas of cooperation.
An important milestone was reached at the 2008 NATO Bucharest Summit, where it was declared that Ukraine and Georgia would become members of the Alliance in the future, although no specific timeline was set.
After the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and the outbreak of Russian aggression, cooperation between Ukraine and NATO intensified significantly. Ukraine was granted NATO’s Enhanced Opportunities Partner status in 2020.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 further strengthened cooperation. NATO countries provide Ukraine with significant military, financial and humanitarian assistance. However, despite Ukraine’s aspirations for full membership in the Alliance and NATO’s continued support for Ukraine, the issue of accession remains a subject of debate and diplomatic negotiations.
At the Vilnius Summit in 2023, it was announced that Ukraine would become a member of the Alliance without MAP.
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