NATO foreign ministers meet in Oslo to discuss support for Ukraine, Sweden's membership bid

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers met in Norway's capital city Oslo on Thursday (June 1) to discuss support for Ukraine and Sweden's NATO membership bid. According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the ministers are expected to discuss the ongoing situation in Ukraine, which has been combating the Russian invasion since February last year.

During the meeting, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he spoke earlier this week with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he won the re-election. The conversation comes as Stoltenberg announced he would soon travel to Turkey to discuss Sweden's request (to join NATO), to close a process that has been delayed due to objections from member countries Turkey and Hungary.

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Turkey ratified Finland's NATO accession in March but said Sweden harbours members of militant groups it considers terrorists.

Stoltenberg also said that Russia cannot stop Ukraine from becoming a NATO member.

'NATO needs to think about what security guarantees it can give Ukraine'

Ahead of the NATO foreign ministers meeting, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said the intergovernmental military alliance needed to think about what kind of security guarantees it can give Ukraine. "I have to recall a simple principle of international law, which is that all sovereign states have the right to freely choose their alliances," Colanna said.

Apart from Colanna, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Ukraine should be given a "very clear path" towards becoming a NATO member. "We must give a very strong message that there won't be any grey zones any more in the neighbouring of Russia," Tsahkna said, Reuters reported.

However, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned NATO cannot be joined by a country while it is in the midst of a war.

"And as a result of the Russian war of aggression, cooperation with Ukraine and NATO has further intensified and therefore what NATO has always made clear is the open door policy and at the same time it is also clear that in the middle of a war we cannot speak about a new membership," Baerbock said.

And Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn warned NATO's mutual assistance clause meant the alliance would enter the war with Russia if it accepted Ukraine as a member while the fighting goes on.

(With inputs from agencies)

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