During a meeting between Ukraine President Zelensky and Turkish President Erdogan, Turkey showed support for Ukraine joining the NATO and said that “Without a doubt, Ukraine deserves to be in NATO”. Zelensky also said that he needs “a clear signal that Ukraine will be in the alliance. Not that the door is open for us, which is not enough, but that Ukraine will be in it,” It is worth noting that NATO has an open-door policy which states that “any country can be invited to join if it expresses an interest, as long as it is able and willing to uphold the principles of the alliance’s founding treaty. However, under the accession rules, any member state can veto a new country from joining”.
At the moment, Russia has convinced some countries already in the NATO to veto Ukraine from joining the alliance. It is also worth noting that while Turkey is in support of Ukraine joining NATO, it has itself vetoed Sweden from joining the alliance as we reported earlier this week. Obviously, it is a double-edged sword for Turkey because the same threat they have from Sweden is also explained by Russia from Ukraine.
Turkish President also said that “Particularly on prisoner swaps, we’ve listened to Ukraine. We are also listening to Russia. I spoke to Mr. Putin,” and added that “Next month, we will be able to speak about it again when Mr. Putin has a Turkey visit. We will speak about it on the phone until then. The prisoner exchanges are high on our agenda as well. We hope there will be a solution on this issue as well.”
Ukraine’s President said that “It is very important that we start working with our partners to ensure that the existence of the grain corridor and, therefore, the lives of other people, as Mr. President [Erdogan] said, on other continents (including Africa and Asia), do not depend on the mood in which the President of the Russian Federation wakes up,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday. “It will be interesting for us to know what will be discussed between Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Zelensky. It is important.”
