The NATO member states have to agree on the stringent criteria needed before deciding whether to accept Ukraine into the US-led military bloc, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on Friday as cited by Reuters. He noted that Kiev might need to overcome corruption in order to be accepted.
The comment comes days after Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky presented his much-touted ‘victory plan’, in which he requested an immediate invitation to join NATO, among some other demands. He believes Kiev has no alternative ways to ensure its security.
According to Brekelmans, whose country is among NATO’s 32 members, the military bloc’s allies harbor “very different opinions” on the issue of Ukraine’s acceptance.
“If you don’t have that clarity upfront, I don’t see that 32 allies agree to granting an invitation,” the minister said after a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, adding that fighting corruption is one key provision Ukraine needs to meet.
“If you want to modernize the Ukrainian armed forces, and involve other countries, then I can imagine that you also want to assess the progress that Ukrainians make on that dimension,” he added.
The NATO states have been reluctant to fast-track inviting Ukraine into the alliance, citing fears of being dragged into the conflict with Russia. However, the treaty organization has acknowledged that it accounts for 99% of all military aid provided to Kiev from abroad.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that if Western states give Ukraine their consent to use long-range weapons to strike inside Russia, it will mean NATO is “at war” with Moscow. Zelensky has repeatedly called for restrictions on Western-supplied long-range weapons to be lifted, so that Kiev could target airfields, ammunition depots and command centers deep inside Russia.
In an interview with the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, Brekelmans said on Friday that no one wants to “transfer the war with Russia to NATO,” adding that talks about Ukraine’s membership in the bloc could start only after the conflict ends.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has noted that “there is still work to be done” for Ukraine, including the implementation of necessary reforms and the meeting of specific security conditions, to gain NATO membership.
Russia opposes Ukraine’s NATO membership. The country’s foreign ministry has said such a move would “put an end to” attempts to resolve the conflict through political and diplomatic means, “will make the direct involvement of the alliance in hostilities against Russia inevitable and will lead to uncontrolled escalation.”