Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has warned that admitting Ukraine into NATO amid its ongoing conflict with Russia poses a danger to everyone.
Tajani made this remark during a session at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. He stressed the efforts of the military alliance to grant Ukraine membership — but advised that it needs to exercise caution rather than acting impulsively to “pave the way for achieving these goals.”
“Frankly speaking, it’s dangerous for everybody because you are fighting against Russia, and for a full member of NATO, this would mean World War III,” the minister acknowledged while fielding questions about Ukraine's prospective membership in the 31-member bloc.
Tajani acknowledged the desire of the bloc’s members to support Ukraine but stressed the clarity of the alliance's Article Five: an attack against a NATO ally would trigger a response, hence the need for caution. But he also claimed the present status of cooperation between the alliance and Kiev “sends a clear message to Russia.”
NATO initially mooed Ukraine's membership in 2008. After the second Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, Ukraine increased its involvement with the alliance, officially establishing membership as a strategic objective in its constitution in 2017.
In the fall of 2022, Kiev formally submitted its application to join NATO after four predominantly ethnic Russian regions voted decisively to be part of the Russian Federation.
At a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius last year, NATO foreign ministers highlighted the necessity for Ukraine to fulfill “additional democratic and security sector reforms” before joining the military alliance. They stated that the invitation would be granted when member countries reach a consensus and conditions are satisfied.
Although the issue is set to be deliberated at a summit in Washington, DC, in July this year, recent media reports suggest opposition from the US and Germany due to the risk of a full-blown conflict with Moscow.
Russia repeatedly lambasted the alliance for ditching previous agreements and expanding into Easten Europe, stressing that NATO enlargement towards its borders is security threat. President Vladimir Putin has noted that Western powers used Ukraine a proxy to provoke Russia following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
During a recent interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, Putin criticized the West's approach to Ukraine as a monumental political misstep, recalling NATO's promise in 2008 to bring the country into the alliance as well as the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 as major escalations which led to the current crisis.