Stubb said that Ukraine would join the EU first, then NATO.
15:06•Updated 15:50
President by Alexander Stubb thinking about Ukraine’s EU and NATO membership does not resonate among diplomats and researchers.
Stubb said on Friday at the Helsinki Security Forum that Ukraine would first be promised security guarantees, then the country would join the European Union and only then would it become a member of the military alliance NATO.
On Sunday, Sweden’s new ambassador to Finland Peter Ericson raised the issue in the forum’s Russia discussion.
– If a security arrangement is being built against Russia, shouldn’t it be NATO, and NATO with Ukraine, as soon as possible?
Ericson reminded that after the Cold War, all other countries except Finland and Sweden have first joined NATO, then only the EU.
Finland’s former ambassador to the United States and Russia in discussion Mikko Hautala said he thinks it is more likely that NATO membership will happen first.
– EU membership is much more complex. It will be a long process, no matter how much we would like to speed it up and how quickly Ukraine would meet the criteria, Hautala answered.
Only security guarantees can stop Russia, says the assistant professor at the National Defense University Katri Pynnöniemi.
– In my thinking, NATO membership should be realized first. Security is needed so that the country can be rebuilt and integrated into the rest of Europe, Pynnöniemi estimates.
Ukraine applied for EU membership after Russia invaded the country in 2022, and membership negotiations began last summer. The road to the European Union is estimated to be long, as the EU’s conditions, for example in terms of democracy, legislation, human rights and corruption, are strict.
NATO already promised in 2008 that Ukraine would one day become a member of NATO. Becoming a member requires that all conditions of the military association are met. There is no timetable for NATO membership yet.
Even joining NATO is not simple, reminds the researcher of the Foreign Policy Institute Arkady Moshes. It is not easy to guarantee the integrity of Ukraine in any scenario, but tens of thousands of soldiers would be needed to secure the border between Ukraine and Russia, he says.
– But joining NATO is simpler than joining the EU, Moshes says.
After the end of the Cold War, it was thought that EU membership would disturb Russia less than NATO membership. However, Russia was irritated by Ukraine’s plans to get closer to the European Union.
Today, President Stubb did not comment further on his Friday statement.