NATO explains why Ukraine cannot become a member of the Alliance
In her speech at the Munich Security Conference, Deputy Secretary General of the Alliance, Rose Gottemoeller, insisted that Ukraine differs from other countries aspiring to NATO membership, Evropeyska Pravda reports.
Rose Gottemoeller recalled that this year marks the tenth anniversary of the Bucharest Summit, where Kyiv was denied a Membership Action Plan, but at the same time, the Alliance decided that Ukraine would eventually become a NATO member.
Since then, the Deputy Secretary General noted, there are four countries interested in NATO membership – Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ukraine, and Georgia. Another state, Montenegro, has already acquired membership in the Alliance.
"All these countries have interest in NATO, but Ukraine is the only one that has not officially stated as a matter of national policy, that it is seeking to get a Membership Action Plan, but that's the step you take as a country to begin on the road toward NATO membership," Rose Gottemoeller stated.
NATO as of last year refuses to acknowledge that Ukraine has declared Euro-Atlantic aspirations and has not included Ukraine on the list of "aspirant countries." Gottemoeller's statement was the first attempt by NATO officials to justify this policy.