KYIV. April 21 (Interfax) – Ukraine will definitely join the European Union but its membership in NATO remains in question in the case of the alliance’s ineffective response to contemporary challenges, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said.
“I think that throughout the long period of its existence NATO has been focused on Article 5, i.e. mutual defense commitments, hard security. And we are saying that we are fighting a hybrid war. I am not 100% sure that NATO is fully prepared to fight similar or future hybrid wars and that NATO currently has a structure optimal for dealing with such [challenges] […] No doubt, NATO has been adapting. So, I am always frank about our critical need for participation in structures and guarantees. Yet we will have to seek other options if the alliance fails to provide guarantees for Ukraine,” he said in an interview with the online publication Evropeiska Pravda published on Friday.
He gave an affirmative answer to the question whether Ukraine would become an EU member.
Speaking of alternative ways to provide Ukraine’s security, Klimkin said, “These ways of the provision of security can create much bigger challenges to our partners than those they are currently anticipating from Ukraine’s possible NATO membership.”
Klimkin dwelled on problems existing within the North Atlantic alliance and said that the alliance was lacking consensus on many aspects of its development. “NATO is an organization with a rather complicated structure, incorporating, for instance, Canada and Turkey. So, a lot will depend on the development of NATO in the near future,” he said.
