Yesterday at 19:50
The plan for joining NATO announced by Ukraine is ambitious and extremely specific. The head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Foreign Policy of Ukraine and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation, Alexander Merezhko, spoke about this on the FREEDOM TV channel.
“First of all, I would like to note that the plan is truly ambitious in the best sense of the word. But at the same time it is quite realistic. I liked this plan for its specificity. That is, very specific things are offered there. For example, the initiative for each NATO member state to contribute a quarter of a percent of its gross domestic product as military-technical assistance to Ukraine. There is also a fairly clear deadline for joining NATO. We are talking about July 2028 as the final date by which it is necessary to fully become a member of NATO,” he said.
Merezhko emphasized that the only serious and significant guarantee of Ukraine’s security is NATO membership.
“This plan, I think, is very well written, done very well and can become, in general, an incentive for our partners to take the specifics and prospects of Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration more seriously,” said the head of the Verkhovna Rada committee. Ukraine on issues of Ukrainian foreign policy and inter-parliamentary cooperation.
He stated that Ukraine would like to receive an invitation to the Alliance at the upcoming July NATO summit in Washington, but there is an understanding that not all NATO member states are ready to support such a decision today. In particular, there is an opinion that it is necessary to wait until the end of the war or until the cessation of hostilities.
At the same time, Merezhko agrees with the formulation of the mentioned Euro-Atlantic integration plan, which states that at the NATO summit in Washington, Ukraine should receive an invitation to begin negotiations on joining NATO.
“That is, we are not talking about a direct invitation to join NATO, but we are talking about an invitation to start accession negotiations. That is, this formulation, it seems to me, could become the basis for the decision of the final declaration of the July NATO summit in Washington,” he said.
Let us recall that the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, said earlier that assistance to Ukraine should be a priority for NATO member countries.
