Ukraine’s NATO membership schedule will not be discussed at alliance summit – source – World

BRUSSELS, June 11. / TASS /. Leaders from 30 NATO member countries will confirm a potential opportunity for Ukraine to join the alliance at the June 14 summit in Brussels. However, they will neither discuss the prospects of providing a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine nor specific timetables for its eventual alliance membership, a European diplomatic source said on Friday. at TASS.

“The MAP for Ukraine is not on the summit’s agenda. Alliance leaders will confirm that the decisions of the [2008] The Bucharest summit remains in force, as does NATO’s commitment to the open door policy and the North Atlantic perspective for Ukraine and Georgia. The specific deadlines will depend on whether these countries comply with all NATO criteria, ”he noted. “The summit will also note the importance of cooperation with our valued partners, Georgia and Ukraine, and will support the process of reforms and the fight against corruption in these states.”

Responding to the question on the prospects for Kiev and Tbilisi to join NATO under the current circumstances, the diplomat explained: “The North Atlantic Alliance is defensive. It was created on the basis of the principle of collective defense, which stipulates that an attack against one of the NATO members is automatically considered as an aggression against all the allies (the members of the alliance – TASS). [the alliance], Ukraine and Georgia must come to the resolution of their territorial disputes with Russia, because otherwise their membership would put the alliance on the brink of a military conflict with Russia, in fact, a world war. “

At the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008, alliance leaders refused to provide action plans for Ukraine and Georgia membership, but made a political statement stating that Kiev and Tbilisi will eventually be able to join the alliance when they meet all the membership criteria. . In August 2008, Dmitry Rogozin, then Russian Ambassador to NATO, expressed the opinion that the summit decision had in fact prompted the Georgian leadership to launch a military aggression against South Ossetia. August 8, 2008.

US and NATO diplomats made it clear at the time that Georgia had no real prospect of NATO membership until the conflicts frozen on its soil were resolved. At the same time, NATO has provided intensive military assistance to Georgia to bring its army closer to alliance standards.

NATO summit in Brussels

The NATO summit, to be held in Brussels on June 14 with the participation of US President Joe Biden, will last for one day. It will consist of a single working session that will last approximately 2.5 hours. NATO summits typically last two days and include 3-4 working sessions on various issues. On the second day, alliance leaders traditionally hold one of the sessions with leaders of NATO partner countries. However, there will be no such session this year, so partner countries including Ukraine and Georgia have not been invited to Brussels.