NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wants to convene a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at ministerial level for the first time since 2017 – obviously against the will of Hungary. Stoltenberg said in Brussels on Tuesday that he respects points that Hungary has raised regarding the protection of minorities in Ukraine and always tries to reach agreement. If there is no consensus, however, he ultimately has the prerogative to convene such meetings and he is now making use of this. The NATO-Ukraine Commission is a platform to demonstrate support for Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.
According to the Norwegian, the first new meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at ministerial level to be organized in April on the sidelines of a regular NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. It is possible that the heads of state and government of the alliance states will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius. “I have made it clear that I will invite Selenskyj to the summit,” said Stoltenberg on Tuesday.
The last top-level meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission was organized in July 2017. After that Hungary announced within NATO that it would block meetings at higher levels until further notice. The main reason for this was a new Ukrainian education law that only allows school lessons in the languages of the minorities to a limited extent. The Russian, but also the Hungarian minority in Ukraine is particularly affected.
It was initially unclear on Tuesday whether Hungary would take part in the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission in April – just as why Stoltenberg only now decided to organize a meeting at the top level against Hungary’s will. What is certain, however, is that the government in Budapest could continue to block an expansion of cooperation because all decisions in NATO are made on the basis of consensus. This means that decisions can only be made if nobody objects.