The recent NATO summit, which took place in Vilnius July 11-12, continues to be a key topic discussed by experts around the world.
However, the views of the expert community on the outcomes of the summit are split.
Some view the summit as a success, having achieved its main goals of accepting Finland and negotiating Sweden’s path to joining the alliance through successful talks with Turkey. Others, however, view the summit as a failure for not accepting Ukraine as a member of NATO.
Reactions were particularly strong in Ukraine, where the topic turned into a heated discussion among politicians, experts, and media.
Ukrainian President Volodymryr Zelesnkiy accused NATO of “weighing conditions to invite Ukraine into alliance.” These remarks caused some negative feedback from the Western NATO partners. The outgoing U.K.’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, for example, said Ukraine should not treat its allies as an “Amazon warehouse.”
Even though Secretary Wallace toned down his remarks in a later statement, many in the West do share a similar view that Ukraine has to acknowledge and work with this political reality.
This sentiment is growing particularly strong among conservative circles in the U.S. However, despite this, the U.S. House of Representatives was able to pass by a vote of 219-210 the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included a new military aid for Ukraine, approximately $350 million. The U.S. Senate is now considering the NDAA and expected to pass its version later in July, after which the two versions will need to be reconciled. According to Reuters, Ukraine could be a particularly “contentious” issue in the conference bill.
Support for Ukraine remains strong among U.S. and European politicians. At the same time, however, the E.U., as well as the U.S., have voiced concerns about anticorruption reforms in Ukraine. Corruption has been an ongoing issue for the country, which significantly relies on the support of the Western countries.
Even though Ukraine did not get a formal invitation to join NATO, the country still got significant security guarantees from the NATO and G7 countries.
