Former NATO Secretary General calls for inviting Ukraine to join Alliance before war ends
Pravda Ukraine
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, believes that it is time for NATO to send Ukraine an invitation to join, and this should happen at its next summit in Washington.
Source: Rasmussen in an interview with the Finnish news agency STT, as European Pravda reports
Details: As the former secretary of NATO said, if Ukraine is told that it cannot be invited to join the Alliance while the full-scale war is ongoing on the part of Russia, Vladimir Putin will be given an “excuse to continue the war indefinitely”.
Rasmussen believes that the Alliance should make a clear statement: Ukraine will become a member of NATO regardless of what Putin does.
Quote: “The sooner we do it, the sooner we will end the war,” he added. Therefore, in his opinion, the issue of Ukraine’s membership in the Alliance should be resolved first, and only then can the end of the war with Russia come.
The former head of NATO is convinced that the members of the Alliance will be able to achieve unity on this issue.
When asked how to solve the problem of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty regarding collective self-defence in the event of Ukraine’s accession, Rasmussen mentioned one of the options: when the effect of the article extends only to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
He believes that such a decision will actually protect almost the entire territory of Ukraine from Russian aggression and will allow Ukrainian forces to be involved in operations outside the contact line to put pressure on the occupying forces of the Russian Federation.
Rasmussen emphasised that the period of time between Ukraine’s invitation to NATO and its membership should be as short as possible. And at this time, Ukraine must have security guarantees from the Alliance.
“The same as was done in the case of Finland and Sweden,” concluded the former Secretary General.
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