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Vilnius, Lithuania: The leaders of the world’s most powerful military alliance are set to declare they are prepared for Ukraine to ultimately join the grouping but will not commit to a firm timeframe, in a move which has infuriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A draft of a summit communiqué under discussion on Tuesday pledges to “extend an invitation” to Ukraine to join the alliance when “allies agree and conditions are met,” the Financial Times first reported.
The revelation drew immediate criticism from Zelensky, who labelled it “unprecedented and absurd” that the 31-member alliance was negotiating the text without Ukraine at the table.
He said the lack of willingness to invite Ukraine to NATO or make it a member of the alliance was motivation for Russia “to continue its terror”.
Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, an intergovernmental military alliance between 31 member states – 29 European and two North American – have converged on the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius for a two-day summit which will be dominated by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Several news outlets reported on Tuesday that a draft communiqué will state that Kyiv’s “future is in NATO” without providing a timeline for its accession, the people familiar with the text said, stressing that the text could change before being agreed by all members.
Volodymyr Zelensky labelled it “unprecedented and absurd” that the alliance was negotiating the text without Ukraine at the table.Credit: Getty Images
Ukraine, which has been fighting a war against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops for more than 500 days, was promised in 2008 by NATO members that it would have a place at its table eventually.
All member states agree that Ukraine cannot join the alliance while the war is ongoing, given that would trigger NATO’s Article 5 mutual defence clause and bring all members into the conflict.
But Zelensky has used Kyiv’s unexpected success in eroding Russia’s army to agitate for fast action on accession.
In a written statement, the Ukrainian President – set to attend the summit – said it was “unprecedented and absurd when [a] timeframe is not set, neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership,” and also attacked NATO’s “vague conditions” for inviting Kyiv.
The issue of how to acknowledge Ukraine’s membership ambitions as it defends itself against Russian aggression has exposed divides between the US-led alliance in weeks of intense negotiations, with the US and Germany wary of implying that Kyiv’s membership is inevitable without conditions attached.
Eastern European members, with strong support from France and the UK, had called for the word “invitation” to be included in the statement and for an acknowledgment that it would be a political, not technical decision to invite Ukraine to join.
Instead, the UK, United States, France and Germany will likely commit to a long-term plan to arm Kyiv to defend itself from Russian aggression, dubbed an “Israel-style” security guarantee.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who landed in Lithuania on Tuesday morning after two days in Berlin, told reporters there that Ukraine’s membership of NATO was ultimately a decision for the 31-nation membership.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speak with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, right during the NATO summit. Credit: AP
Albanese will join the leaders of the Indo-Pacific 4 at the summit, which will meet on Wednesday before presenting to NATO leaders about security issues within the region which they believe pose a threat to freedom and democracy everywhere.
Speaking before a one-on-one meeting with Stoltenberg, Albanese sought to link the effort in Ukraine to Australia’s own security, as the effects of the European conflict ripple out across the globe.
“Australia stands strongly with Ukraine. We regard this as a struggle about the international rule of law, about whether sovereign nations’ borders will be respected, about fundamental human rights,” he said.
“And we’ve seen the global impact, which has been a reminder for Australia that even though we are at some distance [from the conflict] we’ve been impacted as well. … It has had an impact on our inflation, on our economy and indeed on our people.“
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak told reporters on Tuesday that he believed Ukraine’s “rightful place is in NATO.”
“What’s important at this summit is that that commitment is reaffirmed and that there is demonstrable progress towards that goal and I think that’s what you will see,” Sunak said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters in Moscow that any move to speed up Ukraine’s admission into NATO would be “potentially very dangerous for European security”, Interfax reported.
“This carries a lot of risks and the people who will make this decision should admit that,” he said.
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary-general, said at the start of the summit on Tuesday that he believed “allies will send a clear, united and positive message on the path towards membership for Ukraine”, adding that he expected the statement to be “made public within hours”.
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