Lithuanian President urges NATO member states "to show more courage" on Ukraine's accession process to the Alliance
North Atlantic Alliance member states are being urged to show more courage at the Vilnius Summit on 11-12 July in handling Ukraine's accession process to the North Atlantic Alliance, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said a week before the start of the event hosted by his country.
The Lithuanian president, in an interview with Reuters, advised NATO allies to ignore fears that Ukraine's entry into NATO would be a provocation to Russia, which invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. According to the official, Moscow will view any possible caution as weakness on the part of the West, Agerpres reports.
Ukraine is pressing NATO for a guarantee at next week's Vilnius summit that it will join the alliance as soon as the war is over. In this context, Gitanas Nauseda said that at the summit Kiev could count on a faster procedure and Western military support in the conflict against Russia. Now, in the midst of war, Ukraine cannot join NATO. Everyone understands this, including Ukrainians, said the Lithuanian president.
The Vilnius leader also said he expects his Ukrainian counterpart Volodimir Zelenski to attend the summit, despite the fact that he has said it makes "no sense" for him to go unless Kiev gets a "signal" at the meeting.
At the same time, however, countries like the US and Germany are more cautious, fearing to bring NATO closer to an active war with Russia, which sees the expansion of the alliance as proof of the West's hostility to Moscow.
On the other hand, Gitanas Nauseda said that the possibility of Sweden being accepted into NATO at next week's summit was becoming "complicated" and that the chances of the Nordic country joining the Alliance were diminishing by the day.
Following the outbreak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden applied to join NATO, but Turkey and Hungary blocked the ratification process. This spring, another Nordic country, Finland, became a full member of the North Atlantic Alliance.
