Twenty out of 31 NATO member states have already adopted official declarations in support of Ukraine’s accession into the Atlantic Organization as soon as possible, Kyiv announced after the latest of these documents were signed in the Ukrainian capital between President Zelensky and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on Saturday, June 10th.
During Trudeau’s unannounced visit to Kyiv, the prime minister agreed to join the Fighter Aircraft Coalition (pledging to train UAF pilots on F-16s), offered an additional package of military assistance to Ukraine amounting to $400 million—which includes, among others, 10,000 artillery shells and missiles—and signed the declaration to support Ukraine’s NATO membership, becoming the 20th member state to do so, according to Kyiv.
“Only 10 days have passed since the Summit of the European Political Community in Moldova, where we signed a joint declaration with Romania, and as of today we already have formalization of support for Ukraine’s membership of the Alliance with 20 member states,” Igor Zhovka, Kyiv’s Deputy Head of the Office of the President stated after the signing ceremony.
The most recent declaration recognizes that Ottawa officially supports Ukraine’s NATO accession “as soon as conditions allow for it,” hailed by Zhovka as “the strongest wording among all G7 countries that are NATO members.”
Furthermore, during the visit, Prime Minister Trudeau also called for establishing a NATO-Ukraine Council to replace the current NATO-Ukraine Commission as the primary forum of the parties. This is the first public support for the Kyiv-proposed new mechanism to provide more streamlined cooperation.
Of course, not all member states who signed similar documents support Ukraine’s imminent NATO accession. Some opted for more cautious phrasing, largely just reiterating the Atlantic Organizations’ official (and intentionally vague) position by saying that Ukraine will join NATO sometime in the future, meaning decades, potentially.
During his aircraft-shopping European tour last month, President Zelensky managed to get such declarations signed by the leaders of Germany, France, and Italy.
With 20 declarations in the bag, Kyiv is looking to get the remaining 11 member states to sign similar agreements to help it lobby its way into NATO as soon as possible. Ukraine will likely push for the Organization to commit to a more specific accession timeline during its upcoming Vilnius Summit in July, but it’s unlikely it will get the definitive answer it is looking for.
