Kiev needs to “win the war” before getting invited, Radoslaw Sikorski has said
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has stated that the US-led bloc is not prepared to offer membership to Ukraine until after the conflict with Moscow.
Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) event in Washington on Friday, following the NATO summit in the US capital, Sikorski, a former AEI fellow in the early 2000s, addressed the seeming reluctance of the US and Germany to invite Ukraine into NATO.
In response to a question from host Dalibor Rohac, Sikorski said membership would happen “after the war,” adding, “but Ukraine first has to win.”
“There is nothing more dangerous in international relations than a non-credible security guarantee,” Sikorski stated. “We had that in 1939 and it was not good for us. It makes you braver than you should be. NATO guarantees should be only extended to situations in which we are willing to go to war on behalf of the country to whom we are giving the guarantee.”
“There is no appetite in the alliance to do that now,” he added.
Sikorski asserted that NATO members are willing to provide “long-term assistance to Ukraine in winning this,”
Hungary and Slovakia have publicly voiced opposition to Ukraine’s membership in the US-led bloc, arguing that it would result in a direct confrontation with Russia and a third world war. It is worth noting that NATO rules require the consent of all member states before new ones can join.
The final communiqué of the NATO summit declared that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO” and that Kiev is on an “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership,” but emphasized that the bloc would extend an invitation only “when Allies agree and conditions are met.”
This statement mirrors the language used last year in Vilnius, Lithuania. The government in Kiev responded angrily to the lack of a formal invitation, with Vladimir Zelensky posting a series of angry social media messages accusing NATO of weakness and cowardice.
While Kiev was promised more weapons, ammunition, and equipment going forward, the delivery of these supplies will take months and even years. Moscow has maintained that no amount of foreign aid can alter the outcome of the Ukraine conflict and that the West is only unnecessarily prolonging the hostilities and risking direct confrontation.