Ukraine's parliament also believes Ukraine should not join NATO through MAP – Foreign Minister

Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, stated that the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian parliament - ed.] regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO, which referenced the decision of the Bucharest Summit, should not be mixed up with a need to enter the Alliance through following the Membership Action Plan (MAP). Source: Kuleba during a conversation with journalist Vadym Karpiak on his Instagram on Friday, European Pravda reports. Details: On 10 April 2023, the Ukrainian parliament adopted an appeal to all the parliaments of allied states, in which it asked them to "implement the decisions of the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit regarding Ukraine's membership" in the Alliance.

The 2008 decision directly obliges NATO to guide Ukraine through the MAP stage. However, Kuleba noted that the reference to the decision of the Bucharest Summit in the Council's address should not be associated with the need to necessarily implement the MAP on the way to membership.

Quote: "I will speak out in defence of [the parliament - ed.]. They mentioned the decision in Bucharest; I understand them because the decision of the Bucharest summit is the foundation of the idea that Ukraine will be in NATO," Kuleba said.

He added that the MAP topic was no longer on the agenda. According to him, the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, also supports the idea that the MAP is not a necessary stage for membership. Quote: "The subject of the MAP has been removed, forget it and move on.

I would read this statement of the Ukrainian parliament in the context that we were promised membership in Bucharest, and it is time to grant it, and not in connection with the MAP," Kuleba said.

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As it is known, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, submitted Ukraine's accession application to NATO last year, and official Kyiv expects to join under a simplified procedure, as it happened in the case of Finland and is happening with Sweden - that is, without the stage of the MAP implementation.

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