NATO agreed in 2008 that Ukraine would eventually join the alliance but leaders have so far stopped short of taking steps, such as giving Kyiv a membership action plan, that would lay out a timetable for bringing Ukraine closer to the military pact.
NATO divided on Ukrainian membership as Zelensky
renews call
Ukrainian president appeals to dozens of European leaders as divisions among NATO members meeting in Norway become apparent.
But as Zelenskyy renewed his demands for NATO and EU membership at the European Political Community meeting in Moldova, held on Thursday, leaders of the military alliance gathered in Norway and were divided on Ukraine’s call.
- He called for more European support on the ground, which he said is saving lives and “literally accelerating peace”.
- According to Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from the summit, Zelenskyy was the first foreign leader to arrive at the venue, a move unlikely “by chance”.
- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told the summit, “Our meeting today in Moldova speaks volumes. The country borders on Ukraine and here, the Russian threat is palpable.”
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also attended.
“All allies agree that Moscow does not have a veto against NATO enlargement,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters foreign ministers gathered in Oslo, seeking to dispel any signs of discord.
Zelensky joins European leaders summit in Moldova, asks for ‘clear’ decision on NATO membership
The second European Political Community summit began in Moldova, the neighbouring country of war-torn Ukraine, on Thursday (June 1) which saw the participation of 47 leaders from the 27-nation bloc, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who said that Kyiv wanted to receive a “clear” decision on its future in NATO during the military alliance’s leaders' meet which will take place in July in Vilnius.
Ukraine about its NATO bid
Addressing the summit of European leaders in Moldova, the Ukrainian president said that he wanted to receive a “clear” decision about the war-torn country’s bid to join the military alliance during the upcoming meeting which will be held in Lithuania.
“This year is for decisions. In summer in Vilnius at the NATO summit, a clear invitation to the members of Ukraine is needed and the security guarantees on the way to NATO membership are needed,” said Zelensky. He added, “On our accession to the EU a clear, positive decision is needed.”
The Ukrainian president also spoke about Kyiv’s preparation for the Peace Summit to “guide the world to jointly implement” the 10-point peace plan proposed by Zelensky, which entails the full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Why is the summit being held in Moldova?
The summit of over 40 leaders from the EU’s 27 nations was held at Mimi Castle in southern Moldovan wine country which is some 20 kilometres away from Ukraine and also near to the Russian-backed, breakaway Transdniestria region of Moldova.
- The decision to host the summit in Moldova is being seen as a symbolic show of support for Kyiv and Chisinau.
- The summit is also taking place with NATO Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) surveillance planes flying over the former Soviet republic of 2.5 million people.
- Notably, Moldova, whose President Maia Sandu, a pro-Western leader has sought EU membership, shut its airspace except for official delegation planes.
Notably, Moldova has witnessed missile debris multiple times since the beginning of the Russian invasion. “The presence of these leaders in our country is a clear message that Moldova is not alone and neither is our neighbour Ukraine, which for a year and three months has been standing against the barbaric invasion of Russia,” said the Moldovan president.
- In addition to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the EU leaders are also expected to discuss issues like ethnic tensions in Kosovo as well as peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
- France and Germany are also expected to host a round table involving the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in an effort to broker a peace deal between the two countries, during the summit in Moldova.
Moldova and Ukraine
While in Moldova, the Ukrainian president urged the international community to put concrete “security guarantees” in place for Kyiv and its neighbouring Moldova amid threats from Russia. Zelensky also indicated that he would talk to “partner countries” about a possible “air jets coalition” and providing Patriot missiles, which are used by the United States and its allies.
The Ukrainian president said that “security guarantees are very important” for both Kyiv and Chisinau citing “Russia, their aggressions in Ukraine and potential aggression in other parts of Europe.” Notably, Moldova, like Ukraine, applied to join the EU last year shortly after the Russian invasion.
“We support Moldova and its people who are integrating into the EU. You supported our people, our refugees who fled in the first days of the war, and we will never forget it,” said Zelensky standing beside Sandu while addressing the press.
Prior to the summit, Zelensky also said that he met with his Moldovan counterpart during which they discussed “strengthening cooperation between our countries and counter the challenges posed by Russia together.”
(With inputs from agencies)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took his quest for more arms and support to a sprawling summit of some 50 European leaders in Moldova on Thursday, ending up the focal point of an event that seeks to quell regional conflicts and shore up unity in the face of Russia's war.
The meeting of the pan-continental European Political Community, which embraces all European nations other than Russia and Belarus, gathered the heads of state and government from 47 countries but its attention was on the continent's south and east — a region pushed to a turning point in its relationship with Moscow because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.
After a day of talks in the Moldovan countryside, Zelenskyy said the best security guarantee for Ukraine was membership in NATO and the European Union, and that any proposed peace plans to bring the war to an end could not take into account Russian concerns.
"There is an aggressor in this war and there is a victim," Zelenskyy told reporters. "A peace plan cannot be prepared by the aggressor."
The 27-nation EU hoped to use the summit to reach out to many Eastern European countries that spent decades either within the Soviet Union or under its immediate sphere of influence, and to bolster the continent's unified response to Russian aggression.
The choice to hold the summit in Moldova, a former Soviet republic of around 2.6 million people, is seen as a message to the Kremlin both from the EU and the pro-Western Moldovan government, which received EU candidate status in June of last year at the same time as Ukraine.
The summit's venue is only 12 miles from the Ukrainian border, and Moldova's president, Maia Sandu, has warned of plots by Moscow to overthrow her government using external saboteurs.
As Europe's poorest country which is cradled by Ukraine on three sides, Moldova aspires to join the EU by the end of the decade, and has consistently signaled its support for Ukraine and taken in refugees fleeing the war.
Late in the summit, Sandu said her country was on an "irreversible path to joining the European Union," and that she and her European partners had told Zelenskyy that "we will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes."
Zelenskyy was the first foreign leader to arrive at Thursday's summit venue, a 19th-century castle and vineyard around 21 miles from the capital, Chisinau. Dressed in his trademark olive green shirt and cargo pants, he sought to dispel doubts about his country's accession to the EU and NATO, and told the assembled leaders that such doubts would be exploited by Moscow.
Since the start of the invasion, he said, "the limits of security in Europe have in fact been the limits of our determination, our ability to act together for the sake of the interests of our peoples and the whole of Europe. As much as we can reject doubt, we can reject the evil of aggression."
Zelenskyy urged a continuation of Western military aid to Ukraine, saying it was saving lives and "literally accelerating peace." He insisted that all countries that border Russia should be full members of the EU and NATO, since Moscow "tries to swallow only those who are outside of the common security space."
"When there are no security guarantees, there are only war guarantees," he said.
Other summit participants include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Scholz and Macron joined European Council President Charles Michel for one of the summit's major meetings: discussions with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet Caucasian neighbor nations that have fought wars over a contested territory.
Recent negotiations between the two nations over the territorial dispute had raised hopes that a breakthrough could come at the Moldova summit. But following the talks, a new round of negotiations was announced for July in Brussels.
Also on the agenda was the recent flareup in ethnic tensions between neighboring Serbia and Kosovo, whose leaders attended the summit. NATO has announced it will send 700 more troops to northern Kosovo to help quell violent protests after clashes with ethnic Serbs there left 30 international soldiers wounded this week.
The latest violence in the region has stirred fear of a renewal of the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives, left more than 1 million people homeless and resulted in a NATO peacekeeping mission that has lasted nearly a quarter of a century.
Speaking to reporters in Oslo on Thursday, U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Kosovo and Serbia to "take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and make a real effort on normalization agreements."
"We support the process of European integration for Kosovo and Serbia but the current escalation hinders, rather than helps, the efforts in that direction," Blinken said from an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in the Norwegian capital. "We're looking for both to act responsibly."
No comments:
Post a Comment