Ukraine's Foreign Minister briefs NATO Secretary General on Ukraine's membership application

ALONA MAZURENKO – SUNDAY, 2 OCTOBER 2022, 00:48

Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said he briefed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg "in detail" on Ukraine’s NATO membership application.

Source: Kuleba on Twitter

Quote: "Building on his dialogue with [President Volodymyr Zelenskyy], I had a call with Jens Stoltenberg to brief him in detail on Ukraine’s membership application.

We agreed to keep in contact on the matter and discussed NATO’s further practical steps to support Ukraine in countering Russian aggression."

Previously: Kuleba has earlier said that Ukraine was hopeful that many of the NATO member states that had previously been sceptical about Ukraine’s membership prospects have reviewed their positions in favour of Ukraine in light of the "fundamental change of circumstances".

The White House believes that the issue of Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance should be resolved "at a different time", and now it is more urgent to provide it with support to fight against Russian aggression.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on 30 September that "every democracy in Europe" had the right to apply for NATO membership, but that NATO’s current focus was on "providing immediate support to Ukraine, to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian brutal invasion".

NATO Secretary General stated that Ukraine has the right to apply for membership, however assistance is the priority at the moment.

At the same time, the Baltic states, as well as Canada, have already expressed their support for Ukraine's membership in the Alliance.

Background:

• On 30 September, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine would submit an application for accelerated accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.
• Zelenskyy noted that the accelerated procedure is possible because Finland and Sweden started joining the Alliance this year without an action plan for membership.
• Ukraine decided to take this step after the announcement of a new annexation by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also signed "agreements on the accession" of the occupied territories with Russian-appointed puppets in the east and south of Ukraine: in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson Oblasts.

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