Latvian President: Hungary is not the obstacle to Ukraine’s NATO membership

In an interview with European Pravda, Edgars Rinkēvičs, the newly elected President of Latvia, stressed that the main obstacle to Ukraine’s accession to NATO is not Hungary. It is rather the uncertain position of the wider group of countries.

“Many member states are not clear about what to do when a state at war wants to join the alliance and what this means in terms of the fifth article of the North Atlantic Treaty on collective defence,” Index quotes Mr Rinkēvičs as saying.

According to Mr Rinkēvičs, many countries do not have an answer to this question. This is why no progress has been made so far, while other members of the alliance have been negotiating.

At the same time, the Latvian President is convinced that sooner or later, the allies will agree that Ukraine should be admitted to NATO. Latvia will do its utmost to make this a reality, he noted.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at the beginning of June that Ukraine could expect a “strong support package” at the NATO summit in Vilnius, including both financial and political assistance, according to Ukraine’s Telegraf.