EDITORIAL
As the tides of battle have shifted against Ukraine, amid doubts about whether the U.S. Congress will approve a new round of aid, influential experts are voicing for black balling Ukraine’s aspirations to join the NATO.
The risks of a global war will only increase if Ukraine becomes part of NATO, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said yesterday, promising to block Kiev’s accession.
Russia has consistently opposed the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, fearing it would bring the alliance’s forces too close to its own territory.
Ukraine is still a fragile democracy at best. Corruption is still endemic, elections have been suspended since the beginning of the war, and there are still influential elements in Ukrainian society whose commitment to democratic norms is questionable.
Thus far neither the United States nor any other NATO country has shown any willingness to send troops to fight for Ukraine. But they are supplying weapons and money but not ready to send their citizens to defend Ukraine!
Accepting new countries into the US-led military alliance requires unanimous consent from all of its 32 current members. If Ukraine gets invited to join NATO, Slovakia’s parliament will not ratify the accession treaty, Fico said.
“Slovakia needs a neutral Ukraine. Our interests will be threatened if it becomes a NATO member state because that is the basis of a large world conflict,” the prime minister explained, as quoted by the news website Noviny.sk.
Fico stressed that he will not bow down to any outside pressure. “Our partners abroad have been taught that whatever they ask and request from Slovakia, they will automatically get it. But we are a sovereign and self-confident country,” he said.
Slovakia, together with neighboring Hungary, has warned that the EU should not be dragged into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and has insisted on a diplomatic resolution. After becoming prime minister in October 2023, Fico reversed the previous government’s decision to send weapons to Kiev. He also fiercely opposes sending NATO troops to Ukraine.
Ukraine formally applied to join NATO in September 2022. Although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated this month that Ukraine “will become a member of NATO” sometime in the future, the alliance has so far refused to commit to a specific timetable or provide a clear pathway for Kiev’s accession. US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg have ruled out Ukraine’s membership until the fighting ends.
Russia has repeatedly stressed that it views NATO’s continuing expansion eastward as a national security threat. Moscow cited the alliance’s military cooperation with Ukraine as one of the root causes of the current conflict and described Ukraine’s potential accession as a “red line.”
Earlier, on 4 April 2022 former Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her statement back in 2008 at the NATO summit in Bucharest to block Ukraine from joining NATO.
Sweden became NATO’s newest member on Thursday (7 March 2024), upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the Government of the United States in Washington DC.
Israel Which has close security cooperation with the US and other Western countries, has not sought formal membership in defense alliances like NATO. On the other hand Turkey, a neighbor of Israel joined NATO in 1952.
