site.btaPM Glavchev from Washington: Ukraine's Path to NATO Irreversible, Although Membership Talks Have Not Started Yet

"NATO accession negotiations with Ukraine are yet to begin, but we all share the view that Ukraine's path to NATO membership is irreversible," Bulgarian caretaker Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dimitar Glavchev said on Thursday, speaking to Bulgarian journalists in Washington on his way to a meeting on the last day of the NATO Summit.

In the declaration adopted by the North Atlantic Council on Wednesday, NATO heads of state and government described Kyiv's path to full Euro-Atlantic integration as "irreversible", stated their intention to provide Ukraine with "a minimum baseline funding of EUR 40 billion within the next year", and expressed their "profound concern" over "the deepening strategic partnership between Russia and the PRC [the People's Republic of China] and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut and reshape the rules-based international order".

Glavchev was asked to comment on a deal for a harmonized military mobility corridor between Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, signed on the sidelines of the Summit. The idea is to enable swift cross-border movement of troops and weapons to NATO's eastern flank. The Prime Minister said Turkiye wants to sign such a letter of intent as well, but things will be slightly different in this case, because the corridor is partly funded by the EU, and Turkiye is not an EU member.

Concerning the memorandum of understanding between Bulgaria and Romania on establishing the headquarters of the Regional Special Operations Component Command, signed by the two countries' defence ministers in Washington, Glavchev said this is a legally binding instrument unlike the letters of intent on the military mobility corridors.