Ukraine moves closer to NATO and continues to ask Canada for support
What does the Canadian government think?
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted that Canada support Ukraine's intention to join NATO. At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated his full support for Ukraine.
Kiev sees NATO membership as an opportunity to end military actions in the country and aggression by Russia. The Canadian authorities confirmed that they would continue helping to ensure security in Ukraine, but Trudeau preferred not to comment on the plans to join NATO.
At the same time, in the past the Canadian government advocated Ukraine's accession to NATO, this was under the previous prime minister Stephen Harper. The Conservative Party of Canada, to which Harper belonged, still shares this position.
Alexander Moens of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia believes that the Canadian authorities should make their position more open. He noted that Canada is home to over a million people of Ukrainian origin. In addition, the country supported Ukraine by imposing sanctions against Russia in 2014, when the latter joined Crimea. At the same time, Moens believes that caution should be exercised because Ukraine's membership in NATO may become a point of no return in relations with Russia.
NATO so far only talks about the possibility of Ukraine's accession, and Volodymyr Zelenskiy is satisfied with such a statement, although he calls on the alliance to speed up the process. He also asked US President Joe Biden for support, but his position was more categorical. Biden said that Ukraine still had a lot of work to do to comply with NATO countries. For example, to put an end to corruption.
