What Anders Fogh Rasmussen Actually Said about Why Ukraine should Enter NATO Now

The Guardian headlined on November 11th, “Ex NATO chief proposes Ukraine joins without Russian occupied territories: Former secretary general says partial membership would warn Russia it cannot stop Ukraine joining the alliance”, and didn’t cite the source of their report or when Rasmussen allegedly said this.

Yahoo News on November 11th headlined “Ukrayinska Pravda: Former NATO Secretary General suggests accepting Ukraine into Alliance with no guarantees for occupied territories”, and gave as its “Source The Guardian, citing Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Former Secretary General of NATO, as reported by European Pravda,” though The Guardian’s report didn’t even mention “Pravda.”

On November 2nd, Ukraine’s Pravda headlined “Former NATO Secretary General calls for inviting Ukraine to join Alliance before war ends”, which allegation is different from what the Guardian and Yahoo were alleging, which was simply that the currently Kiev ruled parts of Ukraine should be admitted into NATO as soon as possible, so as to send “a clear message to Russia that any violation of NATO territory would be met by a response.” Instead, the November 2nd Pravda asserted that,

Quote “The sooner we do it, the sooner we will end the war,” he added. Therefore, in his opinion, the issue of Ukraine’s Membership in the Alliance should be resolved first, and only then can the end of the war with Russia come.”

The former head of NATO is convinced that the members of the Alliance will be able to achieve unity on this issue.

When asked how to solve the problem of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty regarding collective self-defence in the event of Ukraine’s accession, Rasmussen mentioned one of the options: when the effect of the article extends only to the territory controlled by Ukraine.

He believes that such a decision will actually protect almost the entire territory of Ukraine from Russian aggression and will allow Ukrainian forces to be involved in operations outside the contact line to put pressure on the occupying forces of the Russian Federation.

Rasmussen emphasised that the period of time between Ukraine’s invitation to NATO and its membership should be as short as possible. And at this time, Ukraine must have security guarantees from the Alliance.  …

The former secretary of NATO said, if Ukraine is told that it cannot be invited to join the Alliance while the full-scale war is ongoing on the part of Russia, Vladimir Putin will be given an “excuse to continue the war indefinitely”.

The Pravda report was sourced to “Source Rasmussen in an interview with the Finnish news agency STT, as European Pravda reports,” but did not link to the source-news-report itself; so, like those others it was actually unsourced.

Here is the closest that I’ve yet gotten to the original, the alleged STT news-report:

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https://ground.news/article/anders-fogh-rasmussen-its-time-to-invite-ukraine-to-nato

https://www.rp.pl/konflikty-zbrojne/art39357951-rasmussen-nadszedl-czas-na-zaproszenie-ukrainy-do-nato?

https://www-rp-pl.translate.goog/konflikty-zbrojne/art39357951-rasmussen-nadszedl-czas-na-zaproszenie-ukrainy-do-nato?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

https://archive.is/JmpQc

“Rasmussen: It’s time to invite Ukraine to NATO: It is time for NATO to send Ukraine an invitation to join, which should happen at the next summit in Washington, said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Secretary General of the Alliance, in an interview with the Finnish news agency STT.”

Published 2 November 2023, 22:02

As a former NATO secretary said, if Ukraine is told that it cannot be invited to join the Alliance while there is a full scale war on Russia’s side, Vladimir Putin will receive “an excuse to continue the war indefinitely.”

Rasmussen believes the Alliance should state clearly: Ukraine [already is and] will remain a NATO member regardless of what Putin does.

The sooner we do this, the sooner we will end the war,  he added. Therefore, in his opinion, the issue of Ukraine’s membership in the Alliance should be resolved first, and only then can the war with Russia end.

Rasmussen confident of the agreement of member states

The former head of NATO is convinced that the members of the Alliance will manage to achieve unity on this issue.

When asked about how to solve the problem of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on collective self defense in the event of Ukraine’s accession, Rasmussen mentioned one option: when the effect of the article extends only to the territory controlled by Ukraine.

He believes that such a decision will actually secure almost the entire territory of Ukraine against Russian aggression and will enable Ukrainian forces to be involved in actions beyond the line of contact in order to put pressure on the occupation forces of the Russian Federation.

Rasmussen emphasized that the period between Ukraine’s invitation to NATO and its membership should be as short as possible. And right now, Ukraine should receive security guarantees from the Alliance.

 It would be the same as what was done in the case of Finland and Sweden, concluded the former Secretary General.

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In short, Rasmussen was saying that the reason why the war is dragging on this long is that Putin wants to drag it on for as long as he can, and that NATO isn’t yet being allowed to enter directly and fully into Ukraine’s war against Russia, and Rasmussen assumes that if and when Ukraine will be a NATO member, that would put a stop to the bloodshed because Russia is to blame entirely for the war (which only Russia wants), and ONLY the entrance of NATO into the war can bring peace there: only decisive force by NATO can bring peace in Ukraine. The reason for the war’s continuation isn’t that NATO countries continue to flood their armanents into ukraine in a war for NATO to conquer Russia, nor is it that the US Government is determined to position its nuclear missiles on Ukraine’s border just 317 miles away from beheading within five minutes Russia’s central command in The Kremlin, which Russia won’t allow, which is the actual reason why Russia on 24 February 2022 invaded Ukraine in this war by America that had started with America’s 2014 coup which installed a rabidly anti Russian regime in Ukraine.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to US and allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’, duping the public.
Eric Zuesse blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/.

https://theduran.com/what-anders-fogh-rasmussen-actually-said-about-why-ukraine-should-enter-nato-now/