Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have long been complicated, sometimes even uncertain. From hopes for membership after the Bucharest Summit in April 2008, to effectively declaring Ukraine neutral during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency; from the reactivation of a Euro-Atlantic integration course following Russian aggression in early 2014, to new doubts after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s victory in the last presidential election.
For the last several years, there was at least one important sticking point on Ukraine’s path toward membership in the organization: the position of Hungary, whose government had officially blocked important progress at the NATO-Ukraine Commission (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, June 3, 4, 8). A new round in this struggle occurred late last month, when Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba rushed to Budapest by car (due to continued quarantine limitations on air and rail travel) to meet with his Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó (Radiosvoboda.org, May 29).