Finnish president believes Ukraine will only join NATO after joining EU
Finnish President Alexander Stubb believes that Ukraine should first become a member of the EU before joining NATO.
Source: Stubb at the Helsinki Security Forum, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Stubb was asked whether it was realistic to expect Ukraine to receive an invitation to join NATO by the end of the year.
Quote: "Till the end of the year, I would think that it’s unrealistic," the Finnish president replied, adding that he considers that Ukraine being invited to join NATO is realistic in the long term.
Stubb went on to share his opinion on the order in which Ukraine will join the Western alliances.
"I think that the sort of sequence would be: EU membership first, and NATO membership second," he added.
According to Stubb, Ukraine will first sign security agreements – which so far it has done with more than 20 countries – followed by bilateral security guarantees with countries such as the US, the UK and France. After that, Ukraine will be able to join the EU, and only then join NATO.
He stressed that Finland's position is to support Ukraine's NATO membership. "But the timing has to be right. We all know that a country that is at war cannot become a member of NATO," he said.
"Don’t hang everything on getting an invitation now. It is going to happen. It’s a step by step process. Russia wanted to avoid at all cost getting NATO to its borders. It got Finland, it got Sweden, it will get Ukraine and all of those countries that want to join the Alliance," he added.
Stubb dismissed the idea that Russia could use the war to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO since, he said, the war will end sooner or later.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba believes it is possible that Ukraine will be invited to join NATO before the Alliance's summit in the Netherlands in 2025.
EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová believes that the forecast that Ukraine could join the EU by 2030 is realistic.
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