Russia's war in Ukraine

CNN
July 11, 2023
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Ukraine should join NATO “as quickly as possible,” but only after the Russian invasion “finishes,” UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told CNN on Tuesday from the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long asked to join the alliance, but many members have reservations about admitting Ukraine to its ranks while it is still at war. US President Joe Biden told CNN on Sunday that Ukraine is not yet ready to join NATO – a message that Wallace echoed in the interview with CNN.

“I totally agree with the United States that we can’t have a new member in the middle of a conflict. That would just import war into the alliance,” Wallace said.

Wallace said that NATO members should “work together to make sure that Russia fails in its… illegal invasion of Ukraine,” before permitting Ukraine to join the alliance. However, once the conflict finishes, Wallace said that NATO needed to be ready to accept Ukraine as a new member.

“Given we have an open-door policy, it’s important to state that we believe Ukraine does belong in NATO,” Wallace said, adding that Ukraine had taken some of the necessary “steps” to get there, including strengthening its military and eliminating corruption.

“Whenever this conflict finishes, we should be prepared as quickly as possible to bring Ukraine into NATO,” Wallace said.

The British Defense Secretary also said he was “delighted” by Turkey’s eleventh-hour decision to green-light Sweden’s bid to join NATO on the eve of the Vilnius summit, which he claimed to have been “working quite hard behind the scenes” with other Western officials “to make sure this happens.”

“It’s really important because first of all Russia will pick on countries that don’t manage to get in or are transitioning from non-membership to membership. That can leave them exposed, and Russia, we often see, try to use division,” he said.

“But it’s also really important for the integrity of the alliance. We have an open-door policy. We say if you meet certain conditions you can join.”

When asked why Turkey finally agreed to approve Sweden’s bid, having obstructed it for months, Wallace claimed that Sweden had taken measures to “deal with the threat” posed by Kurdish terror groups that Turkey felt Sweden had been soft on.

Wallace was asked if any other concessions had been made to Turkey to secure its approval – such as being provided with F16 fighter jets or even having its bid to join the EU accelerated. “I don’t know if there was anything extra,” Wallace said, adding that “Turkey’s a long way from EU membership.”

He claimed that “the international community talked to the Turkish at length” to persuade them that Sweden’s accession to Nato is “in everyone’s favor.”

Source: CNN