Ten years ago, on April 4, 2008, the three-day NATO summit in Bucharest concluded with NATO committing to eventual membership in the alliance for Ukraine and Georgia. Both countries sought Membership Action Plans, but the alliance postponed approval of that decision.
The NATO Bucharest Summit Declaration stated: “NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO. Both nations have made valuable contributions to alliance operations. We welcome the democratic reforms in Ukraine and Georgia and look forward to free and fair parliamentary elections in Georgia in May. MAP is the next step for Ukraine and Georgia on their direct way to membership. Today we make clear that we support these countries’ applications for MAP. Therefore, we will now begin at a high political level to address questions still outstanding, pertaining to their MAP applications. We have asked foreign ministers to make a first assessment of progress at their December 2008 meeting. Foreign ministers have the authority to decide on the MAP applications of Ukraine and Georgia.”
The decision by NATO was the first time in the alliance’s 59-year history that it announced a political commitment to inviting countries to become members in due course. This commitment was made prior to the two aspirant countries embarking on the MAP process. Prior to this, all MAP countries went on to become members of the alliance; but the process was not automatic.
This decision turned a tactical defeat into a major strategic success for Ukraine, Georgia and their North American and European supporters, Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski commented. German-led attempts to block the MAPs gave Moscow an indirect veto through Berlin on the decision. However, pro-MAP countries mustered sufficient critical mass to turn the tables on the naysayers and win the debate. The technical issue of MAPs was shifted toward a political issue of membership for Ukraine and Georgia in NATO, he added.
NATO’s commitment to eventual membership for Ukraine and Georgia was also based on each country meeting the criteria for membership, through the implementation of necessary reforms. The prospect of eventual membership was also hoped to be a stimulator for these reforms, to enhance the Ukrainian and Georgian leaderships’ standings with their own public in upcoming elections, and it sent a clear message to Russia that NATO has a strategic stake in Ukraine and Georgia, even if they are not yet members of the alliance and irrespective of the duration of the MAP process.
Based on the NATO summit’s communiqué, assessments on the progress of Ukraine and Georgia toward MAPs would be determined at the ministerial level, with multiple assessments possible due to the expressed reluctance by German and French representatives to approve MAPs for Ukraine and Georgia. It was hoped that this decision would allow Ukraine and Georgia to work toward MAPs before the NATO ministerial-level meeting in December 2008 in Brussels.
This year on March 10, Ukraine was added to the list of aspirant members recognized by NATO, with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Macedonia. NATO-Ukraine relations, as described on the alliance’s website, shifted to include a reference to a bill adopted by Ukraine’s Parliament on June 8, 2017, which set NATO membership as Ukraine’s foreign policy objective.
Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush Tsintsadze said: “There’s a long path between recognizing ambitions and membership. It consists of, first of all, internal work, but we can successfully walk this path if we will purposefully change the country according to NATO’s democratic, social, economic, political and, of course, military principles and approaches.”
Source: “NATO makes commitment to eventual membership for Ukraine and Georgia,” by Vladimir Socor (Eurasia Daily Monitor), The Ukrainian Weekly, April 13, 2008.