The NATO Summit in Washington will be held in 2024. We must start preparing now

I remember the year 2008. As Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, I supported the initiative of President Viktor Yushchenko and signed a politically risky but strategically necessary appeal to NATO to join the Membership Action Plan. At that time, despite the victory of the Orange Revolution, supporters of NATO membership were in a clear minority. The Democratic Initiatives Foundation put the figure at around 22 percent.

NATO was also cautious, to put it mildly, about the idea of Ukraine's membership. The paradox was that the West understood the importance of Ukraine and at the same time was afraid of integrating it. We should not provoke Russia, we were told. To make Ukraine's arguments heard, we founded the Kyiv Security Forum in 2007. Since then, this unique platform (and we a proud to say it) has hosted dozens, if not hundreds, of events, discussions and debates on Ukraine's accession to the Alliance. Believing that we will achieve this goal. 

Why is accession to NATO the top priority for Ukraine? Because it is the main condition for Ukraine's survival. 

There is a war in our country because we are not in NATO. And this is one of the biggest injustices and gaps in the Euro-Atlantic collective security system. We are paying a high and terrible price for multi-vectorism, non-alignment and "guarantees without guarantees". 

Today, the Ukrainian political elite and Western government circles unanimously agree that Ukraine should become a member of the Alliance. The number of supporters of joining the North Atlantic Alliance among Ukrainians has reached almost 90 percent. This is more than the number of supporters of joining the EU and is practically equal to the number of supporters of Ukraine's state independence. There is no such agreement among Ukrainians on any other issue. 

The question is when? And there is no clarity here. They say it will happen one day, but when and under what circumstances is not known for sure. Maybe after the war. 

But this is bad rhetoric. We do not have to wait for the war to end to join NATO. Joining the Alliance itself is a big step towards ending the war. I'm frankly surprised by the fear of a possible "conflict escalation" because of Ukraine's accession to NATO. Everything has long been clear. Ukraine's joining NATO is not a step towards escalation, but rather a way to settlement. Because there is no other way to stop Russia. They only recognize power. 

Any security guarantees for Ukraine without joining NATO are a travesty and an illusion, a new Budapest Memorandum about nothing and no one. You can talk to the international community a thousand times and write a thousand articles about security guarantees. But the only article that works in this case is NATO's Article Five.

We need to see a clear algorithm for our actions. This is what our friends and partners are talking about today. For example, one of the most reputable American analytical institutions, the Atlantic Council, has come up with such an initiative. Ambassadors John Herbst and Alexander Vershbow, together with General Douglas Lute, presented a special appeal to the President of the United States on this issue at the Kyiv Security Forum. I would like to add the following points to their arguments:

1. No doubt, the Washington Summit should take a decision to invite Ukraine to begin accession talks. This will make Ukraine's path to NATO irreversible. At the same time, the timeframe for this process should be clearly defined.
2. We need to approve amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine that will allow NATO members’ military bases on Ukrainian territory.
3. The changes and reforms that the Alliance insists on, and without which Ukraine's membership in NATO is impossible by default, must be implemented.

Ukraine's accession to NATO is a complicated matter. Ukraine is at war. Nearly 20 percent of our territory is occupied. But there are precedents. In 1955, Germany was admitted to the Alliance even though the rest of the country was under Soviet occupation. Moreover, the effectiveness of any system (including NATO) is determined by the scale of the challenges that system can overcome. Ukraine's accession to NATO will create a fundamentally new system of collective security in the world. I believe that in the near future Ukraine's membership in NATO will be regarded as the most successful step in the Alliance's development. 

Ukraine's accession to the Alliance, NATO weapons and technologies, the spirit of freedom and liberty of modern Ukraine and our incredible resistance against a powerful enemy are the amalgam of joint efforts and aspirations that can put an end to numerous threats in the world and protect it from new wars and new conflicts for many years to come. Because in today's global world, there are no solutions with local consequences. The world is interconnected and interdependent. Our membership in NATO can eliminate threats not only on the European continent, but also in the Middle East, and as far away as in Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula.

The United States stands at a critical juncture in its history when it must stop Russia's aggression, President Joe Biden said in his address to the American people. And Ukraine is at the forefront of this process. We are a fortress of the bright part of the world.