Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met in Kiev on Monday and discussed the prospect of Ukraine joining the alliance.
”Today we clearly stated that we would begin a discussion about a membership action plan and our proposals for such a discussion were accepted [by Stoltenberg] with pleasure,” Poroshenko told reporters while standing next to the NATO chief.
”We are also here to demonstrate NATO’s solidarity with Ukraine and our firm support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of your country,” Stoltenberg told reporters…
But John Herbst, former US ambassador to Ukraine and current director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told Business Insider that ”2020 is an optimistic scenario.” Herbst said Ukraine probably wouldn’t be able to join for another 10 years or more because the European NATO members ”are anxious about provoking Moscow.”
In order to join NATO, Ukraine also cannot have any territorial disputes, which it does in Crimea and the Donbass, an eastern area of the country where Kiev has been battling Russian-backed separatists since 2014. Nevertheless, if Ukraine became a member, ”you can’t rule out additional aggression by Moscow,” Herbst said. Läs artikel