t is not necessary to look very far behind to take full measure of the progress made by NATO, presented just over three years ago as an organization in a “brain-dead state” by Emmanuel Macron. It was shortly before another summit, that of London, in 2019, to mark the 70th anniversary of an alliance in the process of finally becoming only a shadow of itself, according to the French president.
Gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week, the 31 members of the international defense organization finally warded off fate once again, by displaying themselves, in solidarity, as the components of an organization renewed by the war imposed by the Russia to Ukraine.
A Ukraine which hoped a lot from this summit but which, in the end, leaves despite everything with a lot: it obtains the assurance of soon joining a reinforced pact that Vladimir Putin had hoped to weaken for more than 20 years.
On Wednesday, this NATO summit revealed – no offense to the strongman of the Kremlin – a new, highly symbolic forum in relations between the Alliance and Ukraine. Called the NATO-Ukraine Council, the permanent body brings together the 31 member countries and the former Soviet republic. It will make it possible to hold consultations there, but also to be convened to respond to emergency situations.
Of course, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, would have hoped for better, as he made clear during a perfectly orchestrated communication campaign in Vilnius at the opening of this summit. He called on NATO to send a clear and unambiguous invitation to his country to join the Alliance.
This did not happen, the leaders having preferred to add to this perspective “conditions” to be met: peace in the country is part of it, as is the strengthening of its democratization, its army, its judicial institutions to fight Corruption. Among other things.
The proposed framework does, however, bring the parties closer together, more so than in the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace, of which Ukraine has been a member since 1994. It also confirms the unstable position in which the Alliance has found itself for more than 500 days of conflict in Ukraine. It has no choice but to support this country with its Euro-Atlantic aspirations, being very careful not to get caught up in a direct and frontal conflict with the Kremlin.
“Today we meet as equals,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a joint press conference with Zelensky on Wednesday. “I look forward to the day when we meet as allies. »
“We must stay out of this war, but be able to support Ukraine,” added Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. We have succeeded in this very delicate balancing act over the past 17 months. It is in everyone’s interest that we maintain this balance. »
Support from the G7
Since the NATO summit, US President Joe Biden recalled at a press conference on Wednesday that the United States could not continue to prosper without a secure and peaceful Europe. He also insisted that “the future of Ukraine [était] in NATO. An idea reinforced by the member countries of the G7, of which Canada is a member, and who reiterated their support for kyiv by signing a joint declaration.
The text announces long-term military support to Ukraine to “deter Russian aggression in the future by providing modern military equipment, land, air and sea”. The thing also passes by the sharing of “intelligence and the training of the Ukrainian forces”, one can read.
The United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan also pledge to facilitate a reform package to allow Kyiv to achieve “necessary good governance” enabling it to achieve “its Euro-Atlantic aspirations”.
Unsurprisingly, the announcement was met with outrage by Moscow, which in the usual voice of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the plan “extremely misguided and potentially very dangerous.”
Nevertheless, Amanda Sloat, senior director of European affairs for the National Security Council of the United States, assured Wednesday from Vilnius that all the measures announced by the West in support of Ukraine should end up putting pressure on the Russia, which should understand that “time is not on its side”, she said, quoted by Associated Press.
Volodymyr Zelensky added later, promising that “the next step”, namely his country’s membership in NATO, will be taken at the next Alliance summit, which is to be held on the same date on next year in Washington. According to him, if his country wins the war, then it will de facto win its membership of the Alliance and find “absolute unity” to become “member of the European Union”, he said.
A logical next step for the Ukrainian president, who, while feeding Russia’s atavistic fears of European unity and the West, could also contribute to further bogging down the Kremlin-induced conflict over the territory of the former Soviet republic: a continuation of the war now becoming for Putin nothing less than a Russian veto to Ukraine’s accession to NATO and its integration into the European common market.