Amidst many fine words about Ukraine, at the summit in Warsaw NATO has shown a clear exit strategy.
Ukraine should have been the Cinderella of the 9 July NATO summit in Warsaw. It ended rather not to appear even in the final statement. In the joint communiqué issued at the conclusion of the meeting, indeed, the NATO leaders “encourage those partners who aspire to join the Alliance… to continue to implement the necessary reforms and decisions to prepare for membership”, addressing only to Georgia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina . For those who expected an outstretched hand to Ukraine it looked more like a slap.
Russia is a threat. Actually, no.
The leaders who met in the Polish capital, however, took some important decision. Four battalions with 1,000 soldiers in each have been created for Poland and the three Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Further south, new Black Sea Defence cluster will be composed of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. In the latter, Ukraine is supposed also to participate.
The design drown in Warsaw outlines precisely the Atlantic Alliance’s eastern borders. The four infantry battalions deployed in the northeast are all destined to countries bordering mainland Russia and the strategic exclave of Kaliningrad. A design that speaks much clearer than the words of the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg. “We don’t see any imminent threat against any NATO ally“, he said. “We are not in a strategic partnership with Russia nor in the Cold War situation“.
And indeed, Ukraine – the only one of the countries attending the summit that is facing a war on its soil, which just happens to involve Russia – is not a member of NATO.
Exit strategies
NATO will continue to assist Ukraine in areas such as cyber defense, logistics and the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers, Stoltenberg said, adding that some of the areas of potential cooperation between NATO and Kiev include countering threats from improvised explosive devices and combating hybrid warfare. Really not much for a country at war, where almost daily heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers are used.
“These decisions demonstrate that NATO stands firmly for Ukraine“, Poroshenko said, trying to bring home a nonexistent point. Then he added that “now we have to make the necessary reforms”, probably referring to the joint request of the leaders of the United States, Germany, France and Italy to carry out elections in Donbass within a few months. Another chimera of Minsk peace agreements.
The tangible feeling at the end of this summit is that NATO has no intention of being carried away in the Ukrainian quagmire and that until the east of the country will continue to be an area of destabilization and friction with Russia, Kiev can forget the membership.
A policy in line with the disengagement of individual European countries, eager to close the chapter of the sanctions.
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Amidst many fine words about Ukraine, at the summit in Warsaw NATO has shown a clear exit strategy.
