NATO-EU-Ukraine Relations

🇺🇦 I love that the leaders of Europe are signing declarations for Ukraine to join NATO. US President Biden will have no choice but to do the same. Americans want Ukraine in NATO. We want Ukraine in the EU. We want Ukraine in the Free World. We also want Ukraine to recover all of their occupied territory.

Recovering Ukraine's occupied territory will help Ukraine's economy recover, and it will help the EU economy grow as well. Ukraine has almost as many proven natural gas reserves as Norway, but is estimated to have nearly five times as much. However, most of those reserves are in the occupied territories. Recovering those natural resources will help Ukraine build a thriving energy industry, and once Ukraine joins the EU, having those reserves in the EU energy portfolio will help the EU be more energy independent and energy secure, helping to resolve the cost-of-living crisis across Europe, which is caused by high energy prices. Ukraine is also one of the biggest cereal grain producers in the world, they are often referred to as the bread basket of the world. Ukraine's expansive farmland will be critical in keeping the EU food secure while extreme weather conditions continue to become more severe, and other regions such as Spain, Portugal, and France suffer severe droughts that will limit their ability to continue to be large agricultural producers. Of course, Ukraine will likely be flooded with new investments, and many new industries will flourish in Ukraine as well. The more coastline Ukraine restores, the easier it will be for new industries to grow, and the more secure the Black Sea region will be for trade and the transportation of goods. I hope the leaders of Europe recognize the importance of Ukraine's territorial integrity, not only for Ukraine, but for the EU, the security of the Black Sea region, and ultimately the security of the entire European continent.

After the war, the USA should provide a treaty to Ukraine as an immediate security guarantee, and this will ensure Ukraine's security while they fulfill the multi-year program that NATO has promised to provide to Ukraine at the next NATO summit. A treaty between Ukraine and the USA will provide the stability they need to rebuild, it will prevent rogue NATO members like Hungary from using their veto power to extract concessions from Ukraine during the NATO accession process, and it will prevent future attacks of aggression from Russia.

P.S. I believe F-16s are a sensitive subject between the USA and Turkey. The US Congress is blocking the sale of F-16s to Turkey, because of their stance on Sweden's NATO membership and their purchase of Russian weapons. I believe President Biden is reluctant to donate them to a non-NATO nation while the US Congress is blocking the sale of the same fighter jets to a NATO ally. However, most Americans support the donation of fighter jets to Ukraine. We will convince the US Congress to pressure the Biden Administration to donate the fighter jets to Ukraine despite the issues we have with Turkey.

xo

Notes:

Ukraine's Energy Profile: Resource Endowment: "Natural gas reserves are estimated at 5.4 trillion cubic meters (tcm), with proven reserves of 1.1 tcm of natural gas... The loss of jurisdiction over Crimea, whose significant offshore gas resources are no longer accessible to Ukraine, means natural gas reserve estimates must be revised downwards." https://www.iea.org/reports/ukraine-energy-profile/energy-security

Ukraine's Untapped Potential: "Ukraine today holds the second biggest known gas reserves in Europe. As of late 2019, known Ukrainian reserves amounted to 1.09 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, second only to Norway’s known resources of 1.53 trillion cubic meters. Yet, these enormous reserves of energy remain largely untapped. Today, Ukraine has a low annual reserve usage rate of about 2 percent. Moreover, more active exploration may yield previously undiscovered gas fields, which would further increase the overall volume of Ukraine’s deposits." https://hir.harvard.edu/ukraine-energy-reserves/