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French Head of State Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met this Wednesday, June 28, ahead of the organization’s leaders’ summit on July 11 and 12. They promised to raise a possible accession of Ukraine to NATO.
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Emmanuel Macron and Jens Stoltenberg met in Paris this Wednesday, June 28, where they discussed, among other issues, the war in Ukraine and Ukraine’s candidacy for NATO. These talks came two weeks before the organization’s leaders’ summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius in July.
Emmanuel Macron called on Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership before the summit, arguing that they need to send a message of unity over the war in Ukraine.
“Finland’s accession to NATO a few weeks ago was a powerful gesture. Now we must take this logic to its ultimate consequences and allow Sweden to participate in the Vilnius summit as a full-fledged ally (…) Now more than ever is the time to make decisions that guarantee the unity and security of the continent,” said the French president.
Macron also took the opportunity to recall that he supports the eventual entry of Ukraine into the organization.
“It is necessary to define a path to concretize the prospect of Ukraine’s accession to NATO that we opened in 2008, in Bucharest,” Macron said.
Jens Stoltenberg shared the same speech, explaining that Ukraine should join NATO.
“Ukraine’s rightful place is NATO. Once the war is over, we need agreements for Ukraine’s security, so that history does not repeat itself,” said the organization’s secretary general.
New aid for Ukraine
On the other hand, they declared that they will continue to support Ukraine for the duration of the war.
“We must not underestimate Russia and we must continue to support Ukraine because the more territory Ukraine is able to liberate, the stronger they will be at the negotiating table and the better the chances of achieving a lasting peace,” Stoltenberg said of the conflict.
On Wednesday, the United States promised to give a new “solid package” of aid to Ukraine, something that should be exposed during the next NATO summit.
“A number of countries are looking in parallel, in addition to what is happening in NATO, what can we do to achieve just what I just said, which is to help Ukraine build its long-term defense and deterrence capability. And that It involves a lot of things, but I’m also confident that we’ll get to that point,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on June 28.
This Wednesday, the city of Kramatorsk, located near the front in the Donetsk province, was the target of new attacks. A missile hit a downtown restaurant and left at least 10 dead and dozens injured.
Ukraine asks to join NATO
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on NATO member states to allow Ukraine to join the Alliance by the time the war is over.
“Ukraine’s entry into NATO will be a powerful signal to the world that this is an Alliance that protects and will continue to protect,” Zelensky said on Ukrainian Constitution Day.
He called on the leaders to stop depending on the Kremlin and to make their decisions without considering the Kremlin.
“It just takes” that “all our Alliance partners stop looking at the Kremlin when they make their important decisions,” he added.
“It is absurd” to be pending, said the head of the Ukrainian state, “of such an incompetent leader, of a state that is also incompetent,” he said, referring to the recent rebellion of the Wagner group.
The Vilnius summit on July 11 and 12 will give more details about Ukraine’s possible accession to NATO and about new financial and military aid to kyiv.
With EFE and AFP
