Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said at a meeting of the board of the Lithuanian Conservative Party that the time has come for Ukraine to apply for NATO membership and negotiations should begin now.
“Lithuania supports the policy of open doors, and therefore Ukraine can count on the unconditional support of Vilnius, even if it seems a difficult goal,” the minister said.
Anushauskas emphasized that negotiations and formal procedures regarding Ukraine’s admission to the Alliance should begin now, “despite the war.”
“The most important thing is not the simplified procedures for admission to NATO, but the consensus of 30 countries – the agreement that this country (Ukraine, ed.) can be admitted to NATO. The process itself must begin regardless of the war. And here the Western countries, unable to remain in the same position as before the war. Security guarantees for Ukraine should be increased now,” he said.
According to Anushauskas, the event that pushed Ukraine to such a decision was Russia’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine.
“On September 30, the leader of the Kremlin repeated what Hitler did on September 30, 84 years ago in Munich, annexing the Czech Sudetenland. Only then did a dictator achieve a result with threats, and in the 21st century – with war, although it is obvious that war will not give such desired results to the Kremlin,” the minister said.
