In an interview earlier this week with Spanish daily El Pais, in which he announced $5 billion in military support to Kyiv, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also touched on the subject of Ukraine’s eventually joining the Alliance’s ranks.
Rutte insisted that, notmatte what the latest draft peace plan may look like between the aggressor and the defenders of their sovereign territory, Russia has no say in Ukraine’s accession to NATO; but rather that this decision depends solely on the unanimity of member states.
“Russia has no vote and no veto over who becomes a NATO member,” he said.
“At the Washington summit, we decided that Ukraine is on an irreversible path toward NATO. At the same time, several allies, including the US have said they are currently opposed to Ukraine joining,” he said.
He insisted that Ukraine must be provided with sufficiently reliable security guarantees so that Russia will never attempt to attack Ukraine again if NATO membership is not an option.
“The first question is how to keep the Ukrainian Armed Forces strong, the second is what a coalition of the willing can provide, and the third is what the US will contribute, since President [Donald] Trump has said before meeting Putin in Alaska, that he wants to be involved in security guarantees. That discussion is ongoing,” said the Dutch former prime minister, who has managed to build more trust with Trump than the majority of his European counterparts.
When asked if Ukraine might join NATO in the future, the NATO chief replied that the 1949 Washington Treaty allows any country in the Euro-Atlantic region to join. “But without unanimity among all allies, it isn’t possible,” he added.
The only way it would be possible is if the Alliance voted to amend Article 10 of the treaty that demands unanimous votes for new members, but that also would require coming to a consensus among all of its members, not just some, which is a fundamental principle of NATO decision-making.
The NATO Secretary General also insisted that Russia remains a long-term threat to Europe.
“If a Russian president is willing to sacrifice a million of his own people for this fallacy to correct history, we must be prepared. That’s why we need to spend so much more in our defense. A peace plan doesn’t change the assessment that Russia is a long-term threat to Europe,” he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said that issues concerning the European Union and NATO within the peace plan will be placed on a separate negotiation track.
The Kremlin, by contrast, has regularly pointed out NATO’s eastward expansion in the 21st century as a major reason for its unprovoked full-scale invasion.