At a meeting of the Defense Council in the Elysee Palace, the French authorities considered the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO. Previously, France, the USA and Germany were wary of such an idea, but now Paris wants to increase the pressure on Russia.
Le Monde writes about it.
On the eve of the NATO summit in Vilnius in July, France chooses to champion the prospect of Ukraine joining the Atlantic alliance in order to influence a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war and force the parties to start negotiations.
According to sources, the Elysee Palace believes that when Ukraine gets the prospect of joining NATO, it will discourage Russia from continuing the war, and Ukraine will be motivated to sit down at the negotiating table.
- Polish President Andrzej Duda calls for Ukraine to join NATO. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron preferred to talk about security guarantees.
- 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. 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".
- The New York Times newspaper wrote on June 14 that a debate has flared up among NATO member countries, putting pressure on US President Joe Biden to support a much faster and more reliable path to membership for Ukraine.
- Meanwhile, The Financial Times wrote that the US, Germany and Hungary are resisting attempts by Poland and the Baltic states to offer Ukraine a plan for NATO membership at the Allianceʼs July summit in Vilnius.