Ukraine will be in NATO: today in Brussels they are deciding the route  to membership – expert

Ukraine will be in NATO – this is the final decision, but today in Brussels they are deciding on the criteria and how our country will become a member of the Alliance.

This was stated by Oleksandr Khara, an expert at the Center for Defense Strategies, at a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine-Odesa.

“During the Vilnius Summit, it was decided that Ukraine would advance even further in NATO: it would practically bypass the NATO Membership Action Plan (the so-called MAP) and begin its integration into the Alliance. Today, a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council begins at the level of foreign ministers, which will discuss the criteria that we have to meet to become a NATO member. The Ukrainian government is presenting a document that defines the key authorities by which we will be assessed by the Alliance in due course,” the expert said.

Hara expressed hope that Ukraine could join NATO right after Sweden.

“There are two things on the way to NATO: our readiness and the will of our partners to accept us into the Alliance. Now there are 31 countries there. Sweden will be the next, if Turkey and Hungary unblock its entrance. 33 could be a city for Ukraine. It’s a beautiful number,” believes Oleksandr Khara.

The expert believes that everything depends not only on the desire of Ukrainians, but also on the determination of the Alliance partners.

“Today’s event is important in terms of formalizing the conditions that we need to fulfill in order to formally approach membership in the Alliance. But the political will is not going anywhere. Our partners in Washington and Berlin do not want to provoke a direct conflict with the Russian Federation and understand that Ukraine is not yet ready to become a member of the Alliance in certain respects,” the expert emphasized.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news