Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ukraine deserves to join NATO after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This week, Zelensky traveled to NATO member states in an effort to gain support for Ukraine’s membership in advance of next week’s NATO summit in Lithuania.
During the joint press conference, Zelensky expressed his satisfaction with Turkey’s support for Ukraine’s membership bid.
As the war winds down, some allies, especially those in Eastern Europe who are geographically closer to Ukraine and Russia, have pushed for a clearer path for Kyiv to join the defensive alliance.
Even if the fighting stops, some officials argue, it would be too provocative for the alliance to rush Ukraine into membership in NATO, and it would be a very risky bet if Russia keeps claiming territory in Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Erdogan has become known as a major power broker. He was instrumental in negotiating the Black Sea grain deal that freed up millions of tons of wheat held up by the invasion.