NATO Avoids Talk of Ukraine Membership 12/03 06:09

   

   BRUSSELS (AP) -- NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Tuesday sidestepped 
questions about Ukraine's possible membership of the military alliance, saying 
that the priority now must be to strengthen the country's hand in any future 
peace talks with Russia by sending it more weapons.

   Rutte's remarks, ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, came days 
after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that extending alliance membership to 
territory now under Kyiv's control could end "the hot stage" of the almost 
3-year war in Ukraine, where Russian forces are pressing deeper into their 
western neighbor.

   "The front is not moving eastwards. It is slowly moving westwards," Rutte 
said. "So we have to make sure that Ukraine gets into a position of strength, 
and then it should be for the Ukrainian government to decide on the next steps, 
in terms of opening peace talks and how to conduct them."

   At their summit in Washington in July, leaders of the 32 NATO member 
countries insisted that Ukraine is on an "irreversible" path to membership. But 
some, led by the United States, have balked at moving forward while the war 
rages and before the country's borders are clearly demarcated.

   NATO was founded on the principle that an attack on any ally should be 
considered an attack on them all, and the alliance has consistently tried to 
avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia.

   Zelenskyy argued that once open conflict ends, any proposal to join NATO 
could be extended to all parts of the country that fall under internationally 
recognized borders.

   Pressed on this by reporters, Rutte said: "I would argue, let's not have all 
these discussions step by step on what a peace process might look like."

   The first step, he said, must be to "make sure that Ukraine has what it 
needs to get to a position of strength when those peace talks start."

   Ukrainian officials made it clear Tuesday they won't countenance any half 
measures or stopgap solutions on NATO membership.

   The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement saying 
Ukraine "will not settle for any alternatives, surrogates or substitutes for 
Ukraine's full membership in NATO," citing its "bitter experience of the 
Budapest Memorandum."

   Under the international agreement signed in the Hungarian capital 30 years 
ago, Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet-era atomic weapons, which amounted to 
the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal, in return for security guarantees 
from Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

   The Foreign Ministry statement called the Budapest agreement a "monument to 
short-sightedness in making strategic security decisions."

   "We are convinced that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as 
well as a deterrent for further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other 
states, is Ukraine's full membership in NATO," it said.

   Reflecting on his recent meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, 
Rutte said he had underlined that China, North Korea and Iran were weighing in 
on Russia's side, putting the United States and the Asia-Pacific region at risk.

   "Whenever we get to a deal on Ukraine it has to be a good deal, because what 
we can never have is high-fiving Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping and whoever else," 
Rutte said, saying this would only encourage the leaders of North Korea and 
China to endorse the use of force elsewhere.