Even if Lithuania is not happy with the NATO summit declaration on Ukraine’s membership, it will not veto the document because it would look bad, presidential adviser Asta Skaisgirytė says.
Asked whether the Lithuanian president could veto a NATO summit decision that was unacceptable to Vilnius, the adviser said it was important to show unity within the alliance, not an exclusive position.
“Taking a veto position may sound impressive, but such vetoes are very poorly received within the alliance since everyone seeks consensus and everyone seeks unity, so it’s also very important to show unity,” Skaisgirytė told LRT RADIO on Tuesday. “Now all efforts are being made to get a result that is as good as possible for Ukraine and for the alliance as a whole.”
Lithuania is among the loudest supporters of Ukraine’s NATO membership, she underlined, but this requires the support of all NATO members.
“Lithuania’s position is very clear: we are probably one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine’s NATO membership, and we have countries like us all over the region. However, in order to get a decision made at the NATO level, it requires 31 countries, and negotiations are currently taking place on this issue,” Skaisgirytė said.
There has been some progress among countries on granting Ukraine’s request to join NATO, she noted.
“We now have more countries aware that merely repeating the so-called open door policy will not be enough and more needs to be said to Ukraine,” according to Skaisgirytė.
Ukraine is seeking an invitation to join the alliance at the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11–12.
No membership decision by the summit
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said he did not have much hope of reaching an agreement on Ukraine’s membership before the summit.
“The negotiations are in full swing now. I would not rule out that the final negotiation stage might take place in Vilnius. […] In other words, there will be no agreement on the text and the negotiations will move to the summit itself,” Landsbergis told reporters at the parliament on Tuesday.
“There is a chance, the window of opportunity is getting narrower, but there is no major optimism,” the minister added.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Reuters news agency last week his country’s leader would not attend the NATO summit unless the alliance invited Kyiv to start accession process.
Kyiv expects a clear invitation for Ukraine to join NATO after the country’s war with Russia is over.
The major Western countries, however, would like the NATO summit to focus more on the practical strengthening of cooperation between the alliance and Ukraine.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda told BNS earlier that the discussion on Ukraine’s prospects for NATO membership was the most complex of all the issues on the agenda, but that “we can’t leave Ukraine in a grey area, making promises, but not giving a very clear algorithm on how to achieve the NATO membership after the war”.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said last week the US would not make special arrangements for Ukraine to join NATO, despite the Russian invasion, adding that “they’ve got to meet the same standards”.
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