NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said that Russia has no veto power over Ukraine’s possible accession to the alliance, therefore contradicting the terms of a peace plan made by Washington, writes Politico.
In an interview with Spanish and German media, Rutte said that Russia has neither a voting right nor a veto power over which country can become a NATO member. He added that the Washington Treaty, which underpins the alliance, allows any country in the Euro-Atlantic region to join NATO.
The NATO Secretary-General’s comments came after a draft of a US-drafted peace plan was released, which included a condition that the alliance agree not to admit Ukraine. The original peace plan was widely criticized, with its terms being said to be much more favorable to Russia. Within a week, the plan was reduced from 28 points to 19, and demands that spoke in favor of the Kremlin were deleted. The demand to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO was also removed from the peace plan prepared by the Europeans.
Alliance members have refrained from extending a formal invitation to Ukraine to join NATO, but last year the allies agreed that Kyiv’s accession was inevitable. Rutte has repeatedly reminded of this, despite the fact that US President Donald Trump and some alliance members have opposed it. Also in a conversation with the media,
the Secretary General admitted that some allies are currently opposed to Ukraine’s admission.
Rutte indicated that the latest version of the peace plan, which was created after the US-Ukrainian talks in Geneva, is a good basis for further discussion. He added, however, that a separate conversation with NATO is necessary on certain issues.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on the 26th of November that no decision on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union or NATO should be taken unilaterally. She stressed that nothing about Europe should be decided without Europe, and that decisions about NATO can only be taken in the presence of NATO.
Rutte announced that the alliance would deliver a shipment of weapons worth five billion dollars to Ukraine by the end of the year. The secretary-general also warned that Moscow would not stop threatening Europe even if it agreed to the peace plan: “Russia will continue to be a long-term threat for a long time.”
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