Estonian Defense Minister: Ukraine and Georgia should wait for the right moment to join NATO
Estonian Minister of Defense, Jüri Luik, stated that Georgia and Ukraine should prepare for NATO membership and wait for the right moment, the ERR news agency reports.
“I told my Georgian and Ukrainian colleagues that you should never give up,” Luik stated. “The best example is the membership of the Baltic countries. It was considered a miracle, but, nevertheless, it happened.”
According to Luik, this became possible due to the sudden “affair” of former US President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2001, and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, which devalued collective defense.
“We were ready to act at the first opportunity,” the Minister stated. “If these debates took place in a year, they would have been poisoned by disagreements related to the war in Iraq.” Luik called for Georgia and Ukraine to wait for the right moment and use it.
According to Luik, he had never heard the statements suggesting that the adoption of the Baltic countries into NATO could, in some way, mean that Georgia and Ukraine cannot be accepted by the Alliance.
“Our history is good,” he stated. “It shows that you can build a containment system and it will work. Georgia and Ukraine had no deterrent.”
According to the Minister, Estonia would not be able to join NATO in its current situation if it were outside the Alliance. “Most likely, we would have problems in this case,” he said.