NATO foreign ministers will try to overcome differences between their countries in connection with the future accession of Ukraine to the organization during the meeting scheduled for this week in Oslo, reports the Reuters agency, quoted by Agerpres.

Head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg and President of Ukraine Volodymyr ZelenskyiPhoto: Yefrem Lukatsky / AP / Profimedia

Countries such as the USA and Germany fear that the possible accession of Ukraine to the North Atlantic Alliance under an accelerated procedure will bring NATO closer to entering into an active war with Russia.

However, both Kyiv and some of its closest allies in Eastern Europe are insisting that NATO take at least some concrete steps to bring Ukraine closer to NATO membership at a summit in Vilnius on July 11-12.

“It would be very sad if anyone saw the results of the Vilnius summit in any way as a victory for Russia, once excluding Ukraine from joining NATO,” Lithuanian Director General Ingrida Simonite said on Friday.

Last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg clearly stated that Ukraine will not be able to join the Alliance as long as the war against Russia continues.

“Becoming a member in the midst of war is not on the agenda. The question is what will happen when the war ends,” Stoltenberg said.

NATO will have a full agenda for the next meeting

On the sidelines of the meeting in Oslo, which will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, NATO foreign ministers will have the opportunity to exchange views on the successor of Jens Stoltenberg, whose mandate ends on September 30 this year.

Earlier in May, Stoltenberg strongly rejected any suggestion that he might seek a further extension to the mandate, which would normally have expired last year.

Also, the victory of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the presidential elections in Turkey has intensified efforts to unblock the ratification process of Sweden’s accession to NATO, which has been suspended in recent months due to objections from Ankara and Budapest.

Despite Turkey’s known objections, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reiterated last week that relations between Hungary and Sweden must improve before Budapest approves the Scandinavian country’s bid to join NATO.

“Political relations between Hungary and Sweden are terribly bad,” he said, adding that “we don’t want to import conflicts into NATO.”

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