NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is confident that the summit communiqué regarding Ukraine's membership, which will be adopted in a few hours, will contain positive language.
Source: Stoltenberg during a public forum, which is taking place simultaneously with the NATO summit in Vilnius, reports the correspondent of European Pravda
Quote: "You would see the language in a few hours because we are now finalising the communiqué. I said something about the elements I believe will be in there, but it’s for the leaders to finally endorse and agree the communiqué," Stoltenberg said.
Details: At the same time, he previously recalled that in May, at a meeting of ministers in Oslo, he proposed removing the requirement for the implementation of the Action Plan for Ukraine's membership in the Alliance.
Quote: "Ukraine has come a long way since we made that decision in 2008 that the next step will be a Membership Action Plan. Ukraine is much closer to NATO so I think the time has come to reflect that in NATO decisions," he said.
"I am confident it [the wording of the communiqué – ed.] will be a positive and a strong message on Ukraine and the path forward the membership [in the Alliance –ed.]," Stoltenberg said.
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dkyguy1995 on July 11st, 2023 at 14:03 UTC »
The North Atlantic about to get even treatier
CHAOSPOGO on July 11st, 2023 at 12:28 UTC »
Until we get the official communiqué from NATO, it's impossible to tell how soon. But as others have mentioned, it's highly unlikely that Ukraine can join until the war with Russia has been resolved as NATO do not want to have to enter a war with Russia as it could escalate beyond what it is currently.
It does however send a message to Russia, that this war is in fact what has allowed Ukraine to eventually join and the total opposite to what they wished to achieve. This is everything Russia wanted to avoid.
Jumpeee on July 11st, 2023 at 12:18 UTC »
Ukraine was a vulnerable democracy before the war. This decision could put high political pressure for further clamping down on corruption when this war is done with and Zelenskyy presumably steps down, to meet admission requirements. Even though Zelenskyy has been implementing anti-corruption measures, there's still a high risk that things would slip back to normal after the war. The people also want security guarantees, so there's also their pressure towards their governing bodies.
Upholding democracy is one of the minimum requirements to joining NATO, and corruption undermines democracy.
Edit: Phrasing.
Edit 2: Alright let's make it clear to those being smart about varying levels of corruption of current members. The current requirements for NATO admission were drawn up in 1995 in a 'Study on NATO Enlargement', and I'll refer to u/medievalvelocipede's comment for further context:
P.S. Thanks for the gold stranger; you shouldn't have needed to.