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2.0 Politics
2.1 Politics - Ukraine would like to receive the Membership
Action Plan (MAP) in NATO together with Georgia
Ukraine would like to receive the Membership Action Plan (MAP) in NATO together with Georgia, PM Denys Shmyhal said in Brussels on February 9.
"Today, of course, our short-term strategy is to obtain the Membership Action Plan. We want to keep up with Georgia and, ideally, get the MAP together with Georgia," Shmyhal said at a press conference after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
According to Shmyhal, NATO membership is an important priority for Ukraine, enshrined in its Constitution. Ukraine’s PM also quoted Stoltenberg as saying that “achieving NATO standards in the security and defense sector of Ukraine would be the precondition when we get the opportunity to become a NATO full-fledged member."
Tying Ukraine to Georgia in terms of future NATO membership might be a bad idea for Kyiv. NATO membership for both countries has been put on hold since 2008.
“NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO,” declared the 20th NATO Summit in Bucharest in April 2008.
“MAP is the next step for Ukraine and Georgia on their direct way to membership. Today we make clear that we support these countries’ applications for MAP.”
Almost 13 years after, MAP is still the next step for Ukraine and Georgia. For the first six years after Bucharest, this delay had been caused mainly by the Russian war in Georgia in August 2008 and the occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. However, since 2014, Ukraine has been facing its own Russian war and the occupation of Crimea and Donbas. Such factors make NATO membership purely theoretical for both Kyiv and Tbilisi.
While Georgia is preparing to apply for the full EU membership in 2024, it wants to use a NATO MAP for mapping its way to the European Union by copying the approach taken by the Baltic states, Bulgaria and Romania. Ukraine would gain more by highlighting the common border and common threats to its NATO/EU neighbours and borrowing their experiences directly rather than by copying Georgia and strengthening the joint image of Russia’s victims and neighbours.
6 UKRAINE Country Report March 2021 www.intellinews.com
