At the next NATO summit, to be held in 2024 in Washington D.C., it is necessary to start negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the Alliance.

This was stressed by Amb. Alexander Vershbow, NATO Deputy Secretary General in 2012-16, United States Ambassador to NATO in 1998-2001, at a special event of the Kyiv Security Forum, founded by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation “Open Ukraine”.

The Ambassador noted that the Atlantic Council address to the President of the United States of America contains a respective proposal on Ukraine’s accession to NATO, which was presented during a special event of the KSF.

“The only reliable security guarantee for Ukraine is its future membership in NATO. And we should start this process at the Washington Summit”, Alexander Vershbow stressed.

According to the former NATO Deputy Secretary General, this year’s summit in Vilnius failed to attain the expected results on the prospects of Ukrainian membership and essentially turned out a “lost opportunity”: “Certain new steps to bring Ukraine closer to NATO, such as dropping the need for a Membership Action Plan. Still, these were just modest moves beyond the 2008 Bucharest summit language”.

"We believe that the Alliance anniversary summit is a good opportunity to define a clear path for Ukraine to NATO membership, starting with an invitation to begin membership accession talks at the Washington summit,” he emphasized.

Alexander Vershbow considers unacceptable proposals by some experts to lay off Ukraine’s accession to the Alliance until the end of the war with russia.

“This will only encourage russia to continue the conflict. This is like offering russia a permanent veto right on Ukraine’s accession to NATO,” he explained.

The address authors believe that after the accession talks start, the joining schedule may remain open to adjustments depending on how events unfold, in particular, liberation of the russia-occupied territories.

“Ukraine is a special case, and a special approach is needed, and this is what we offer. Let’s start the process and show the russians they have no veto right on Ukraine’s aspirations for NATO membership,” Alexander Vershbow summed up.

The Kyiv Security Forum, founded by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s “Open Ukraine” Foundation, is the main platform in this country for discussing issues of war and peace, national and global security.