FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 21, 2023
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said that all NATO members have agreed that Ukraine will eventually join the military alliance. Defense Priorities Policy Director Benjamin H. Friedman issued the following statement in response:
“Jens Stolenberg’s insistence that Ukraine’s ‘rightful place is in NATO’ is not surprising. He regularly says such things, seeing them as a reflection of NATO’s open door policy as applied to Ukraine.
“But Stolenberg’s statement should come with a reminder that he is not in charge of when NATO expands—member states are—and, more importantly, NATO is not serious about admitting Ukraine.
“The policy of dangling the phony prospect of NATO before Ukraine has been a disaster since the Bush administration pushed it on the alliance in 2008. The notion of Ukraine joining NATO enrages Russia and encourages Ukraine to count on support that is not real. That false promise of protection was a terrible policy prior to the invasion, when it impeded efforts to avoid it. It is a problem today because it makes peace harder to achieve.
“The United States and its NATO allies have been demonstrating for over a year that they will not send troops to defend Ukraine, however much we aid Kyiv. That makes it hard to believe that NATO would ever do so, even if security guarantees are officially extended. NATO does Ukraine no favors by pretending it might eventually defend it.”
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