It is worth extending NATO Article 5 to Ukraine without granting it membership, - Meloni
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has proposed to extend NATO's Article 5 on collective security without membership in the Alliance to Ukraine.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to RBC-Ukraine.
"The central issue is peace in Ukraine, and I believe we must all make every effort to support the peace process, welcoming the US initiative and all those who seek to achieve peace. However, a just peace requires clear security guarantees," Meloni said while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the EU leaders’ meeting in Brussels.
In her opinion, these security guarantees should always be based on NATO, because ‘this is the only serious way to provide them’.
"Then there are different ways of implementation, and we are working on our proposals. But in my opinion, sending indefinite military contingents, British or otherwise, is the most difficult and perhaps the least effective solution. I have said this, reiterated it, and also ruled out the possibility that the Italian military could be sent in this context," the Italian Prime Minister said.
According to her, it is necessary to consider more long-term solutions than simply sending troops to Ukraine.
"UN peacekeeping missions are a different matter, but this is a completely different topic, because such missions are deployed when the peace process has already begun. That is not what is currently being discussed, and I remain very skeptical about such proposals," Meloni added.
She noted that extending NATO's Article 5 to Ukraine would be much more effective.
"This is not the same as joining NATO, but it would provide Ukraine with the same security umbrella that NATO countries have. It would ensure stable, long-term, and real security guarantees - more than some of the proposals I see now. That is one of the ideas we are putting forward," Meloni clarified.
According to the head of the Italian government, this topic is being discussed. It still needs to be improved, but this is an initiative that Italy is working on and promoting.
"This does not mean it will necessarily be implemented, but we believe it is important to continue meeting, discussing, and advancing in this direction. There are no concrete timelines yet, but I see considerable interest in this idea from our partners," Meloni added.
It should be noted that Article 5 states that an attack on one NATO member will be treated as an attack on all members of the Alliance.
