Ukraine applied for NATO membership on an accelerated basis at the end of September 2022. In order to accept a new member, all members of the alliance must agree. However, the parties have not yet been able to reach a unanimous decision.
Diplomats told AFP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may attend a dinner hosted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander for NATO leaders but there will most likely be no official talks between Ukraine and NATO at the upcoming summit on June 24-25 in The Hague.
Zelensky said that Ukraine had been invited to the NATO summit after a meeting with the alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“If he (Zelensky) is not there, it will be a PR disaster,” said a European diplomat.Â
In addition, there is no certainty that NATO will stick to its previous statements on Ukraine’s accession to the bloc, as US President Donald Trump has criticised this and rejected the possibility of Kyiv joining the alliance, AFP reports. According to the agency, NATO wants to keep the summit’s final declaration brief and avoid any mention of Ukraine’s possible membership in the bloc.
“There will be nothing on that,” said the diplomat. “My expectation is we will be absolutely silent.”
AFP sources say that despite Rutte’s statements that Ukraine will remain a “priority” issue at the summit, the main focus is on reaching an agreement on defence spending. Trump has demanded that the bloc’s countries increase their spending to 5% of GDP.
According to many officials, NATO countries seem ready to accept Rutte’s proposed plan to increase defence spending to 5%. As Reuters reported in early May, it includes raising defence spending to 3.5% of GDP (currently 2%, with 22 out of 32 countries having reached this target by 2025) and increasing other security-related spending to 1.5%. What is meant by other spending remains to be agreed. This category could include repairs to roads and bridges needed to transport equipment.
Euractiv reported that NATO countries will include funds for military support to Ukraine in “security-related” expenditures as part of the plan to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP. This will include new purchases of military equipment specifically for Kyiv, as well as investments in the Ukrainian military industry.
NATO leaders against Ukraine’s accession
Polish President-elect Karol Nawrocki opposes Kyiv’s accession to NATO. He considers “Ukraine’s accession to NATO dangerous, as the entire alliance will immediately be drawn into a conflict with Russia.”
The Slovak leadership has repeatedly expressed its unwillingness to accept Ukraine into NATO. Prime Minister Robert Fico has stated that Kyiv’s membership in the alliance could lead to the World War III.
Hungary is another opponent of Kyiv’s membership in NATO. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has also repeatedly spoken out against Kyiv’s accession to the alliance.
“It is now clear that the experiment has failed, and Ukraine, or what remains of it, will once again become a (buffer) zone of conflict (between NATO and Russia). It will not be a member of NATO,” the politician noted. “The admission of Ukraine to NATO will serve as the basis for World War III,” he said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz argued that Ukraine cannot join the alliance as long as the military conflict continues. “Ukraine is a very large European country, but it is a European country at war. And a country at war cannot become a member of NATO or the European Union,” he said.
The United States is also in no hurry to accept Kyiv into NATO. The former administration of US President Joe Biden, like the current administration of President Donald Trump, had no intention of granting Ukraine NATO membership either during the conflict or in the immediate aftermath. Last October, former US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said that the alliance was not ready to accept Ukraine into its ranks. “NATO has not reached the point where it is ready to offer membership to Ukraine,” Smith said.
