Mike Blanchfield, Canadian Press, published on Saturday, April 9, 2022, 6:34 AM EDT
Peter McKay says he is bristling with memories of his time as Canada’s defense minister as he devours recent images of Vladimir Zelensky walking the corpse-strewn streets of Bucha.
Last weekend, the devastated and angry Ukrainian president called on former German and French leaders Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy to block his country’s entry into NATO at their 2008 summit.
Membership could protect his country from future Russian attacks under Article 5, a guarantee of the alliance’s collective defense.
In a video now visible around the world, Zelenski shared his message to the former German chancellor and French president.
“I invite Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the 14-year concession policy towards Russia has led to,” Zelensky said.
“To see with their own eyes the tortured Ukrainian men and women.”
His remarks brought McKay back to the fateful summit in Bucharest, Romania, where Canada and some of its allies were discussing a plan to see Ukraine join NATO.
The Conservative government of Stephen Harper, with McKay as Secretary of Defense, fully supported enlargement.
“I remember French President Sarkozy huddled in the corner with Chancellor Angela Merkel, and they had a very lively discussion,” McKay recalled in an interview this week.
When the meeting reconvened, McKay recalled that Sarkozy and Merkel had spoken out against giving Ukraine access to a plan that would lead it to NATO membership.
“And that was the end of it all. It just melted like spring snow after this little collision happened in the corner.”
France and Germany have denied the alliance the necessary consensus to move forward.
McKay’s reflections provide an idea of Canada’s role in the chain of geopolitical events that ended with Russia’s war against Ukraine and the widespread global condemnation of President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal for alleged killings and torture of civilians by withdrawing Russian troops to Bucha, a nearby town. to Kyiv.
Ukraine gave up its plans to join NATO two years later under former President Viktor Yanukovych, but this again became a foreign policy priority in 2017 under then-President Petro Poroshenko.
Ultimately, Canada can be seen as the right side of history given what followed the Bucharest summit: Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, the eight-year war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region with Russian-backed separatists and the tragedies and alleged war crimes resulting from the February 24 invasion.
“I think it was a decision that led to some very negative consequences that we see happening on the ground right now in Ukraine,” McKay said of the 2008 meeting.
(Zelenski) expresses the way many people see this time as critical and historically tragic. He actually said that, you know, they have blood on their hands for this horrible war crime that is happening. is unfolding every day in Ukraine. “
When the news came from Bucha, McKay dug into an old box of documents and pulled out a blue information book in gold letters from the 2008 summit. He said it was “sinister” to remind him of that.
The summit was captured mainly by the NATO mission in Afghanistan, where Canada and its allies were battling a renewed wave of violence from the Taliban and al Qaeda insurgency.
NATO’s eastward expansion into Europe – something Putin strongly opposes to this day as a security threat – has also been discussed. Ukraine and Georgia, both former members of the Soviet Union, were fighting for membership.
McKay recalled a passionate discussion.
“There were concerns, especially about Ukraine, about the government and allegations of government corruption. And it has been constantly mentioned that Russia has a very vile influence on the western part of Ukraine or the ability to withdraw from its influence in their constellation of satellite countries. “
However, Canada was unequivocal. At the meeting on April 2, 2008, Harper issued a statement saying that Canada supports the candidacy of Ukraine and Georgia to be admitted to the process, which will eventually lead to full membership in NATO.
“The Ukrainian people naturally long for greater freedom, democracy and prosperity. Canada will do everything in its power to help Ukraine realize these aspirations,” said Harper, who did not respond to an interview.
Shuvaloy Majumdar, chief of staff to Harper’s longest-serving foreign minister, John Baird, said Canada, several European countries and the US administration of George W. Bush were among those urging NATO to expand.
“Canada was a wounded leader at the time… The German opposition intervened in Ukraine’s membership,” said Mujumdar, who now works for Harper’s consulting firm and heads the foreign policy program at the McDonald-Lorie Institute’s think tank.
“Germany and others (were) more focused on reconciliation, on energy and living in a fantastic land when it comes to energy transition issues, whether nuclear or other renewables.”
Harper later played a leading role in the expulsion of Russia from the then G8 – now the G7 – after the 2014 invasion of Crimea.
McKay said the West could still deal with Ukraine, especially after Russian forces withdrew in part. NATO has said the imposition of a no-fly zone would spark a large-scale war with Russia. McKay said he must choose a “variation” of this by equipping Ukraine with huge amounts of air defense weapons, including fighter jets.
McKay said he believed Russia was regrouping for a new attack, even though its forces were heavily bloodied and demoralized.
“It goes without saying that Vladimir Putin has a distorted view of the Soviet Union, if not behind it, for a very long time,” McKay said.
“And he tested the edges of NATO and saw that Ukraine was the most vulnerable and desirable in terms of its location.”
This Canadian Press report was first published on April 9, 2022.
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