NATO will not withdraw invitations to Ukraine and Georgia to join the alliance | News from Germany about Russia | Dw

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg refused to comply with Russia’s demand to formally refute the prospect of Ukraine and Georgia joining the North Atlantic Alliance. NATO’s position on Ukraine remains unchanged, Stoltenberg said on Friday, December 10, in Brussels. “We cannot agree that the Russian Federation is trying to restore a system in which powers like Russia had spheres of influence that they kept under control and could decide what other members should do,” the NATO secretary general said. He added that we are talking about the most specific formulation of the requirements so far presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the United States and its allies.

Russia urged NATO to withdraw invitations from Ukraine and Georgia

A few hours earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that the alliance “officially disavow the decision of the 2008 NATO Bucharest summit” on the possibility of future membership for Ukraine and Georgia. According to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, such a step would correspond to “the fundamental interests of European security,” since the prospect of accepting Kiev and Tbilisi contradicts the commitment of the leaders of the OSCE countries “not to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of others.”

Moscow also called on NATO to respond to its earlier “proposals to reduce tensions in Europe.” In particular, we are talking about “withdrawing the areas of operational exercises at an agreed distance from the Russia-NATO contact line” and “resuming a regular dialogue between defense ministries along the Russia-US and Russia-NATO lines.” In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry considers it necessary to determine the “maximum distance of the convergence of warships and aircraft,” primarily in the Baltic and the Black Sea region.

Prospects for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO

The statement following the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008 indicated that the states of the North Atlantic Alliance welcome the aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia for membership. “Today we agreed that these countries will join NATO,” the document says.

At the same time, there is currently no debate on the accession of the two countries to the alliance in the near or medium term. At the same time, Ukraine in particular maintains a close partnership with the West in the field of defense. In particular, the United States recently pledged to provide Ukraine with $ 2.5 billion to improve its defense capabilities amid the threat of a new military escalation from Russia.

According to NATO data, Russia has now deployed between 75,000 and 100,000 troops to the border with Ukraine. On December 7, a video summit of the presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation took place, during which Joe Biden promised to react extremely harshly to the possible Russian aggression against Kiev.

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