{"id":7971,"date":"2024-07-11T16:12:30","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T11:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=7971"},"modified":"2024-07-11T16:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T11:12:32","slug":"ukraine-is-on-an-irreversible-path-to-nato-but-only-after-war-with-russia-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/news\/ukraine-is-on-an-irreversible-path-to-nato-but-only-after-war-with-russia-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine is on an \u2018irreversible\u2019 path to NATO. But only after war with Russia ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The 32-members of NATO on Wednesday formally declared Ukraine on an \u201cirreversible\u201d path to membership in the Western military alliance<\/a>, offering a bare but more binding assurance of protection once its war with Russia ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO member countries individually and in Wednesday\u2019s joint statement from their summit in Washington announced a series of steps aimed at bolstering Ukraine\u2019s defenses. That includes the U.S., the Netherlands and Denmark announcing that the first NATO-provided F-16s<\/a> would be in the hands of Ukrainian military pilots by this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted his appreciation of the effort to strengthen his air force, coming soon after Ukraine saw one of the deadliest strikes of the war<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO on Wednesday also announced a long-term commitment<\/a> of security assistance to Ukraine, and confirmed establishment of a new NATO center aimed at ensuring that Ukraine gets a more reliable flow of arms and training from members of the alliance. But the commitments still fall short of the striking power Ukraine says it needs to defeat the invading Russian forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final statement called China \u2014 which the West says provides components for Russia\u2019s weapons \u2014 a\u00a0\u201cdecisive enabler\u201d<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUkraine\u2019s future is in NATO,\u201d alliance members said in their statement. \u201cWe will continue to support it on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alliance welcomed Ukraine\u2019s democratic, economic and security reforms needed to join and said it would get an invitation \u201cwhen Allies agree and conditions are met.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the leaders stand ready to offer Ukraine the means to defend itself in a war now in its third year, nowhere do they say that Ukraine should prevail over Russia. Indeed, their statement said that \u201cNATO does not seek confrontation, and poses no threat to Russia. We remain willing to maintain channels of communication with Moscow to mitigate risk and prevent escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg underlined that Ukraine will not join the alliance\u2019s ranks<\/a> immediately. But he insisted that must happen after the war is over to ensure that Russia never attacks Ukraine again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the overall NATO assistance, he said, \u201cWe are not doing this because we want to prolong a war. We are doing it because we want to end a war as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stoltenberg also delivered a passionate defense of the military alliance itself Wednesday when reporters asked about the possibility that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a NATO critic, could pull U.S. support for the alliance if he wins in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has been an unofficial but primary topic at the summit, especially among East European governments that believe their country could be targets of future Russian aggression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The criticism of the alliance from the United States, Stoltenberg said, without naming Trump, has \u201cnot been about NATO. It\u2019s about NATO allies not investing enough in NATO. And that has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As NATO leaders met in Washington, Trump on the campaign trail Tuesday renewed his threat not to defend any NATO members from a Russian attack if their military spending does not meet NATO\u2019s target of at least 2% of their gross domestic product. But since 2021, the number of allies meeting this target has increased from six to 23<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe United States has been understood,\u201d Stoltenberg said. \u201cAllies have acted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, meanwhile, was asked several times on Fox News Radio whether he wants the U.S. to exit NATO. He answered, \u201cNo, I want them to pay their bills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. and some other countries have opposed membership for Ukraine during the conflict with Russia to avoid an escalation of tensions that could lead to a larger war. They also have stressed that Ukraine must take significant steps to address corruption<\/a> as well as other systemic reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long bitterly opposed neighboring Ukraine\u2019s fight to join the Western alliance, declaring it an encroachment on Russia\u2019s security and interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very important to give a message to the Kremlin from here \u2014 that Ukraine\u2019s path and bridge towards NATO membership is now irreversible,\u201d Finnish President Alexander Stubb told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden reaffirmed U.S. support for Ukraine but also more broadly the importance of NATO. He noted that since he took office not only has military spending increased but the number of battle groups has doubled on NATO\u2019s eastern flank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can and will defend every inch of NATO territory, and we will do it together,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskyy, in Washington for the NATO summit, had stressed what he called Ukraine\u2019s urgent need for the F-16 fighter jets in a speech to friendly Republican lawmakers Tuesday night. He said his country needed more than 100 to start to counter devastating Russian air attacks on Ukraine\u2019s cities, energy infrastructure and other vital targets. He said Russia was using 300 jets to carry out the attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six nations, including the United States, are training Ukrainians on the F-16s, but officials have not released precise numbers or all the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Allvin, just returned from Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona, where the U.S. training is taking place. Of the initial class of 12 Ukrainian pilots, seven completed training in May and the remaining five are expected to do so in August, Allvin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilots have learned to fly the fighter jet and will get follow-on training once they leave the U.S., but the value of getting Ukraine\u2019s F-16 program running is more about the longer-term, he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that it\u2019s realistic to assume that it\u2019s going to be a game-changer on the battlefield right now,\u201d Allvin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, met behind closed doors with senators for nearly an hour Wednesday and requested more defense help, said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. Zelenskyy also met with the Republican speaker of the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separately Wednesday, the U.S. and Germany announced they would begin \u201cepisodic deployments\u201d of long-range missiles to Germany in 2026, including Tomahawk, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement is notable because land-based firing of some of those missiles from within Europe would have been banned under the former Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. They were banned because the conventional missiles could have been modified to be nuclear capable and their use on the European continent would have meant that potential targets would have had no time to react.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimball said while the deployment is likely being done to reassure allies, Russia may respond by deploying conventional or nuclear weapons of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European and U.S. allies have\u00a0announced other new arms deliveries<\/a>, such as dozens of\u00a0air defense systems<\/a>, including Patriots, this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The promises of new weapons come after opposition from Republican lawmakers allied to Trump blocked a U.S. support package to Ukraine<\/a> for months earlier this year, allowing Russia to make battlefield gains against Ukrainian forces who were fighting with dwindling arms and ammunition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europeans and NATO, as a lesson from that setback, have vowed to take on more of the responsibility for ensuring a reliable flow of military support to Ukraine.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The 32-members of NATO on Wednesday formally declared Ukraine on an \u201cirreversible\u201d path to membership in the Western military alliance, offering a bare but more binding assurance of protection once its war with Russia ends. NATO member countries individually and in Wednesday\u2019s joint statement from their summit in Washington announced a series of […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":7972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,2,342,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-politics","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}