One-on-one talks between Russia and Ukraine began in Istanbul, Turkey on Tuesday. After the talks were over, it was said that it was a very fruitful conversation. It is expected that soon an agreement can be reached on ending the war.
However, in the midst of positive developments, a news has come which can spoil the made-up thing. In fact, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday invited Ukraine to participate in the summit to be held in Brussels on 6 and 7 April. In addition to Ukraine, the invitation has also been sent to other non-member countries like Georgia, Finland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.
Why not spoil the made thing?
After the meeting in Turkey, it seems that the Russian attack on Ukraine may now stop. Ukraine presented a series of proposals in Turkey on Tuesday to resolve the month-long conflict with Russia, including abandoning its old ambition to join NATO.
Russia has assured it will reduce military activity around Kyiv after “meaningful” talks in Istanbul. It is the first time since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine on February 24 that Russia has shown some leniency. In return, Ukraine has promised to remain neutral with international guarantees.
It is believed that Ukraine will give up its insistence on joining NATO. Only after that Russia will announce the withdrawal of its troops. But in such a situation, what will be the next step of Ukraine after being invited by NATO, it is considered very important. One of the reasons for the Russian attack on Ukraine is also believed that it was going to join NATO, due to which Russia has objections.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was invited to virtually address the first NATO summit, which took place on Thursday last week. During the summit, President Zelensky discussed the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What does Ukraine want in exchange for NATO?
Ukraine seeks legally binding security guarantees from Western countries that are equal to or better than NATO’s collective security guarantees. “We want an international security guarantee mechanism where the guarantors act in a manner similar to Article 5 of NATO,” Ukrainian negotiator David Arkhamia told reporters after talks with the Russian delegation.
Article 5 of the NATO treaty mandates member states to come to the aid of other members in case of an attack. Arkhamia said Ukraine wants the United States, China, France and Britain (all members of the UN Security Council) – as well as Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Poland and Turkey – to join as guarantor countries. Except China and Israel, all these countries are members of NATO.
Ukraine said with such security guarantees Ukraine could remain neutral, meaning it would abandon its aspirations to join NATO. “Ukraine will accept a neutral position if the security guarantees work,” he said. Another Ukrainian negotiator in the talks, Oleksandr Chaly, said that Ukraine would not join “any military-political alliance” if this happened.