US President Joe Biden arrives at the NATO summit in Lithuania on July 11, 2023. —Photo: Susan Walsh/AP US President Joe Biden arrives at the NATO summit in Lithuania on July 11, 2023. —Photo: Susan Walsh/AP
Faced with opposition from countries like the United States to Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday (11) that it would be “absurd” if the military alliance did not offer your country the candidacy .
The heads of state and government of all NATO member states are meeting in Lithuania this Tuesday for one of the bloc’s most important summits, which will assess Sweden and Ukraine’s accession to the alliance.
This year, Zelenskyy was invited to take part in the meeting and arrived this morning in the city of Vilnius, where the twoday summit will be held.
A However, it is expected that NATO will postpone the opening of Kiev’s candidacyon the grounds that this could increase the risk of a third world war.
“If the war is on, we will all be at war with Russia if Ukraine joins NATO now,” said US President Joe Biden.
The US, which has just authorized the delivery of controversial cluster bombs to the Ukrainian army, lead the group currently opposed to Ukraine joining the alliance Instead, this wing of NATO advocates arming the Russian army. Zelenskyi did not hide his disappointment at the opinion of his greatest Western ally.
The Ukrainian head of state had hoped that NATO would enable rapid accession To join the alliance, a country must meet a number of requirements and wait for member countries to vote unanimously. This process can take up to two years.
However, NATO legislation also provides for an expedited form of accession, provided that all partners agree. In this case, as in the case of Finland after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, a country’s accession can take place in a few months.
Also on Tuesday, the Kremlin said that Sweden’s expected NATO membership would clearly have negative implications for Russia’s security and that Moscow would respond with similar measures as it did after Finland joined the Western military alliance.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also downplayed Turkey’s decision to end its opposition to Sweden’s membership, saying Ankara has obligations as a member of the alliance and Moscow has no illusions about it.