The President of Poland Andrzej Duda called for Ukraine to join NATO. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron prefer to talk about security guarantees.
They spoke about this at a meeting of the heads of state and government of Poland, France and Germany, writes the German news service Tagesschau.
For example, Polish President Andrzej Duda appealed to NATO member states to include Ukraine in the Transatlantic Defense Alliance as soon as possible: "Ukraine is waiting for a clear signal, a clear prospect of joining. July will bring Ukraine the ʼlight at the end of the tunnelʼ that it so longs for".
However, French President Macron and Chancellor Scholz were more cautious. Scholz assured that they want to continue close consultations regarding Ukraineʼs security guarantees.
Germany and France, as well as our American allies, have repeatedly sought negotiations to prepare security guarantees, Scholz noted. "We will continue to do this very intensively. It is clear that security guarantees are needed in a very specific form," he added.
French President Macron said that the next meeting of the European Council, as well as the NATO summit in Vilnius, will be devoted to "what the future of collective security could look like." NATO will provide Ukraine with all the support it is entitled to, as Macron added.
In April, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said that at the July NATO summit in Vilnius, the Alliance should make a political decision: present a timetable for Ukraineʼs accession or commit to doing so by the end of the year, so that this would be a signal to Russia. The President Volodymyr Zelensky will also come to the July summit — he has accepted the invitation.
- According to The Wall Street Journal, the USA, Great Britain, Germany and France can become security guarantors for Ukraine before its accession to NATO. This will be the so-called "Israeli security model".
- In September 2022, the Office of the President (OP) of Ukraine informed about the project of international security guarantees of Ukraine. A group of experts led by the head of the OP Andriy Yermak and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen worked on the development of the document. OP emphasizes that these guarantees do not replace Ukraineʼs movement towards membership in the EU and NATO. After becoming a member of the European Union, Ukraine will be able to use the clause on mutual defense of the EU, and after becoming a member of NATO — the clause on collective defense of the Alliance.