As the situation on the battlefield becomes increasingly difficult for Ukraine and the fate of additional US military aid to Kiev remains uncertain, the transatlantic military alliance has just celebrated its 75th anniversary.
The door to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has not yet been opened to Ukraine. But arguments in favor of this scenario have been regularly made by influential experts such as former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen and former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder.
They argue that Ukraine will eventually join NATO, both as a way to convince Russia that its military campaign will not drive Ukraine out of the alliance and as a necessary way to provide Ukraine with adequate security once the fighting is over.
At the same time, warnings against this scenario have also been issued. Recently, a French lawmaker commented that Ukraine joining NATO would destroy European countries, and such a development would prolong the Russia-Ukraine conflict for about half a century.
“Granting NATO membership to Ukraine would mean prolonging the conflict for half a century and destroying the European continent,” said Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a member of the French National Assembly and leader of the Debout la France (France Rising) party.
“It will also lead to economic dependence on the United States,” Dupont-Aignan told France Info radio on April 5. “We are spending money on American-made weapons. In fact, the issue is not to support Ukraine but to promote the American defense industry.”
The French lawmaker pointed out that Russia and Ukraine held talks in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, “which were suspended under pressure from the US and the UK.”
Mr. Dupont-Aignan also said that it was time to move towards peace, otherwise Europe would be destroyed by economic and social problems.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg shows Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba where to sit before the start of the NATO-Ukraine Council meeting, following the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Brussels, April 4, 2024. Photo: Getty Images
Stephen M. Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, believes that Ukraine should not join NATO for the benefit of this Eastern European country.
In an article in Foreign Policy in early March, Mr. Walt pointed out five reasons why NATO should not accept Ukraine, for the sake of Ukraine itself. One of the reasons the American professor mentioned was that NATO membership would only prolong the war.
“If it is true that Moscow is moving in large part to prevent Kiev from joining NATO, then bringing Ukraine into NATO now would only prolong a war the country is already losing,” Walt wrote. “If that is why Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his extraordinary military operation, he will not be able to end it if his forces are performing well and Ukraine’s NATO membership is still on the table.”
“As a result, Ukraine will suffer further damage, conceivably putting its own long-term future at risk. Ukraine was one of the fastest-declining countries in Europe before the conflict began, and the effects of the war (fleeing refugees, declining fertility, battlefield mortality…) will only make this problem worse .
Minh Duc (According to TASS, Foreign Policy)
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