Lithuanian FM: Vilnius NATO Summit must announce inevitability of Ukrainian membership in Alliance
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis has said that the only path to success of the upcoming NATO Summit should be a consensus of the Allies on the "inevitability" of Ukrainian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty.
He said this at the Embassy of Germany in Sweden on Thursday within the framework of the conference "Road to Vilnius" in Stockholm while speaking about his expectations from the upcoming summit. As reported, Vilnius will host the NATO Summit on July 11-12.
The minister said that one of the questions on agenda of the summit would be the Ukraine issue.
"It is not about the conflict itself, but specifically about Ukraine's political path towards NATO," he said.
"NATO Secretary General said that Ukraine's application [for NATO membership] is on the table and it has to be considered understanding that we have to build a consensus and the consensus is very difficult one to build especially on the question of the membership itself. The second parameter for success in Vilnius is when we would be able to say that Ukraine is moving on its path towards NATO. […] In my mind, one of the political concepts we actually should be discussing or trying to achieve or trying to convince [the Allies] and form the consensus around the table in NATO is the inevitability of Ukrainian membership in NATO," Landsbergis said.
The Luthianian minister also said that "when we say that Ukraine's place is in the transatlantic alliance, we actually have to, in our minds, devise the path of how and when this is going to happen."
"I understand that Vilnius might not be the place to present the actual plan, to present the steps, but the political understanding that it’s inevitable to create a stable security architecture in Europe without Ukraine in NATO, probably, is not going to happen. Everything else could be discussed as interim projects, interim agreements, interim proposals. But if we are thinking about the continent and long-term security of the continent, most likely we have to admit that this is the only path forward," Landsbergis said.
