Henry Kissinger softens stance on Ukraine joining Nato
- The former US secretary of state and national security adviser, long an opponent of Ukraine’s membership of Nato, now calls it an ‘appropriate outcome’
- Kissinger warned against direct conflict between the West and Russia, and stressed the importance of allowing Russia to rejoin the international system
US elder statesman Henry Kissinger said that Russia’s invasion shows there is no longer a point to keeping Ukraine out of Nato, the long-held aspiration of Kyiv that he had opposed.
The 99-year-old former secretary of state and apostle of realpolitik has for months advocated a ceasefire in the Ukraine war that would in effect accept some military gains by Russia.
But speaking virtually to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Kissinger said that Nato membership for Ukraine would be an “appropriate outcome”.
“Before this war, I was opposed to membership of Ukraine in Nato because I feared that it would start exactly the process that we have seen now,” Kissinger said.
“Now that this process has reached this level, the idea of a neutral Ukraine under these conditions is no longer meaningful,” said Kissinger, speaking before a bookcase with a framed picture of president Richard Nixon, under whom he served.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had described Ukraine’s Nato’s aspirations as a threat as he justified the invasion launched on February 24 last year.
