With Zelensky at his side, Erdogan says Ukraine ‘deserves NATO membership’.
ISTANBUL – President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited Turkey on Friday to talk with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey about supporting Ukraine’s application for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and helping to extend the Black Sea Grains Agreement .
In an early Saturday morning press conference following a meeting between the leaders, Mr. Erdogan that “Ukraine deserves NATO membership beyond any doubt.”
Mr Zelensky has also visited several other NATO countries in recent days ahead of the alliance’s two-day summit next week, where the Ukrainian president hopes to clarify his participation.
The Kiev government considers NATO membership the ultimate guarantee of its security; the application to join the alliance in September was made against the background of the large-scale invasion of Russia.
President Biden, who will attend the summit next week on a trip to Europe, said in a CNN interview to be broadcast on Sunday that Ukraine’s admission to NATO will most likely have to wait until after the war.
“I don’t think there is a consensus within NATO on whether or not to include Ukraine in the NATO family right now, in the middle of a war,” Biden said, according to an excerpt published by CNN.
Because of the alliance’s fundamental commitment to mutual defense, he said, if Ukraine were admitted to NATO now, the allies would be drawn into the war. “When the war is going on, we are all at war,” he said. “We are at war with Russia, if that were the case.”
Mr. Zelensky was also in Istanbul to talk about the Black Sea grain deal, which again faces an uncertain future. Mr Erdogan said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was expected to visit Turkey in August and was working to extend the grain deal at longer intervals.
“Our hope is that it will be renewed at least once every three months, not every two months,” he said. “We will work on this and try to extend its duration.”
Turkey and the United Nations signed an agreement last year to allow Ukrainian grain to be exported through Russia’s Black Sea blockade. Moscow has repeatedly threatened to cancel the contract, saying it hampers Russia’s own exports, but last-minute extensions have kept the deal alive so far. An extension agreed in May ends July 17.
As a credit to Mr. Zelensky, a A provisional agreement was reached on Friday by the European Parliament and member states to spend 500 million euros, or almost $550 million, to strengthen the production of munitions and missiles. The agreement is part of a plan submitted in Marchand the bloc hopes to have it adopted by the end of the month.
Mr. Zelensky has been on a diplomatic offensive among NATO members this week. On Thursday he visited Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. On Friday, before leaving for Istanbul, Mr. Zelensky in Slovakia and met President Zuzana Caputova and praised the cooperation between their countries.
Cassandra Vinograd And Anushka Patil reporting contributed.