Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen proposes to accept Ukraine into the military alliance, but without the occupied territories.
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Anders Fogh Rasmussen was NATO Secretary General from 2009 to 2014. He believes that the issue of Ukraine’s accession to NATO cannot be postponed again until next year, writes The Guardian.
In his opinion, it is time to take the next step and send Ukraine an invitation to join NATO.
We need a new European security architecture that places Ukraine at the center of NATO. Proponents of Ukraine’s membership in NATO are constrained by the fact that the extension of Article 5 of the Alliance’s Collective Self-Defense Agreement to the entire territory of Ukraine would oblige NATO member countries to actively defend a country that is at war.
Rasmussen believes that excluding Russian-occupied territories from the NATO treaty will reduce the threat of conflict between Russia and NATO.
The former Secretary General does not believe that this step will lead to a freezing of the conflict.
Absolute certainty of the guarantees of Art. 5 would deter Russia from escalating attacks on Ukrainian territory within NATO and thus free up Ukrainian forces to be sent to the front lines. To perform Art. “5 convincing, it is necessary to send a clear signal to Russia that any violation of NATO territory will be met with a response,” Rasmussen added.
He said there was an unclear precedent when West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and Art. 5 covered its territory, but not East Germany.
Rasmussen outlined three main reasons why Ukraine was offered membership.
First, Ukraine in NATO would be a bulwark against a still aggressive Russia.
Secondly, gray areas are not safe, and neutrality in the old sense of the word no longer exists.
Gray areas become a temptation for Putin to attack,” he noted. Thirdly, the Ukrainian army, in his opinion, is now the most seasoned army in Europe and will become a valuable asset and example for other European states.
Source: Racurs
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