Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged this week that his country could agree to become a neutral state as part of negotiations to end the war with Russia.
Your comment , which arrives in full negotiations between representatives of both nations in Turkey, is considered an advance in the face of a possible ceasefire, since it would fit in with one of the main demands of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin has long demanded a neutral Ukraine including a guarantee that it will not join the military alliance of NATO.
Zelensky, in any case, clarified that any potential agreement will require a face-to-face meeting with Putin and effective security guarantees that his country will not be attacked.
He also stated that a hypothetical bilateral pact that includes Ukraine’s neutrality would have to be submitted to a referendum in the country.
But What exactly does neutrality mean?
A neutral country does not take sides when there are two or more nations at war; it cannot help or harm the belligerent States -those fighting in the conflict- nor allow them to use their territory for military purposes.
“The concept of neutrality has a long history but, in the end, the neutrality is what the States say it is”, affirms Owen Greene, professor of international security and development at the University of Bradford, in the United Kingdom.
However, he assures, “it is something very varied and negotiated”.
What would a neutral Ukraine look like?
This would depend on negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian diplomatic representatives.
Pascal Lottaz, a Swiss researcher at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study in Tokyo, believes that neutrality of Ukraine is a “non-negotiable” condition for Russia.
“It should be written into the Ukrainian Constitution and an agreement signed with Russia on it,” he says.
While Professor Greene points out that the neu trality is such an ambiguous concept that “the Ukrainians would be extremely unwise if they agreed to become neutral in general terms”.
“It will mean that the Russians interpret that as a maximalist position in a way that ultimately , it would not be acceptable to any Ukrainian”, sentence.
In more specific terms, neutrality could be defined as the Ukrainian promise not to join NATO or allow the forces of this coalition or Russia to enter its territory.
But the future EU membership could become a sticking point. Some experts have suggested that Ukraine could adopt Austrian-style neutrality and become part of the EU, but not NATO.
However, since EU membership would include security guarantees of the bloc, in Professor Greene’s opinion “Russia would see this as something against the agreements”. “ambiguous open point” at the moment when starting a peace process.
At the beginning of the war, the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he wanted to “demilitarize” Ukraine, but never specified what exactly this means.
Professor Green believes that “a demilitarized Ukraine would not last at all”.
But Lottaz believes that Russia is not necessarily going to demand that Ukraine disband its army.
Argues that Russia and Ukraine could reach a consensus to limit the number of t Ukrainian clothes, prohibit offensive and nuclear weapons, and enter into any agreement with NATO.
“The most important aspect of demilitarization is not to use offensive weapons”, adds Lottaz, although, admits, this “obviously is subject to negotiation”.
The examples of neutral countries in the world are as abundant as they are diverse.
Swiss neutrality
Switzerland is the oldest example, and probably the more iconic, of neutrality. This has been a strict principle in the foreign policy of the country since 1815.
The country remained neutral even during World War II, and then it was accused of becoming a refuge for Nazi criminals.
It does not belong to the European Union, although it has signed agreements with the bloc on trade and freedom of movement. It has never been part of the Western military alliance – NATO – and did not join the United Nations until 2002.
For Professor Greene, Swiss-style neutrality is increasingly difficult to maintain in a globalized world.
The EU’s common foreign policy covers security and defence, therefore that Russia considers Switzerland an ally of the western bloc due to its close ties with Brussels.
Greene considers that Switzerland is slowly “moving away” of its own long-standing policy regarding neutrality.
A recent example of this is the fact that it aligned with EU countries in imposing sanctions on Russian companies and individuals after the invasion of Ukraine.
Switzerland, however, is not the only European country with a neutral foreign policy. Others have taken this path to reduce geopolitical tensions.
Austria was occupied by the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France after World War II. Neutrality was a precondition imposed by the Soviets to ensure that there was a kind of buffer between the USSR and the West.
The country accepted this principle and in 1955 enshrined it in its Constitution as part of a historic agreement to regain its independence after being unified with Germany before World War II and then occupied by Allied forces at the end of the conflict.
Although Austria is not part of NATO and does not host foreign military bases, as a member of the EU it adopted sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
Six EU countries are not part of NATO: Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus and Austria.
But all of them except Cyprus e, they cooperate with NATO through the Partnership for Peace program, which allows them to custom-design their relationship with the Western military alliance.
“Physical space” between enemies
Lottaz believes that neutral states achieve their geopolitical objective, however.
They act by interposing a “physical space” between adversaries or enemies , which contributes to relaxing security tensions.
The former Soviet Republic of Moldova subscribed to permanent neutrality in its constitution of 1815.
In Turkmenistan, another former Soviet republic, Neutrality Day is widely celebrated on 05 December, the anniversary of its declaration of permanent neutrality in 1995.
Mongolia, which during the cold war was often caught up in diplomatic disputes between China and the Soviet Union, declared its neutrality at the UN General Assembly in 2015.
Tsakhia Elbegdorj, who was the country’s president at the time, argued that “Mongolia’s history, our geographical location and the uniqueness of the development path we have chosen are consistent with the spirit and principles of neutrality.”
However, he reminded the other nations that, if they are attacked, the Isneutral states have a “full right” of defense.
Neutral but not weak
Professor Greene believes that it is a mistake to think that neutral states are less concerned about security.
“In fact, most neutral states invest more in their military than non-neutral states because they have to rely on themselves for their own defense”, he indicates.
The Swiss armed forces are considered among the most capable in Europe. All able-bodied Swiss men do military service and receive a weapon to keep at home.
“Being a neutral state in a modern world does not mean that we do not believe that war can happen. They simply say that we are not going to participate in it voluntarily”, says Professor Greene.
Neutrality, therefore, it has nothing to do with demilitarization.
Costa Rica dissolved its army in 1949, but maintains a police force as strong as the neighboring country’s armies , points out Professor Greene.
The expert maintains that the Central American State identifies itself as a nation that watches over the collective interest and has a political advantage by abolishing the armed forces in a region with a long history of coups by Estate.
Although their Constitution prohibits them from entering into external wars, Professor Greene believes that “if someone invades them, they will put up external resistance. extremely tough”.
The Japanese Constitution also prohibits entering the country into war, which compensates for this with a solid bilateral military and security alliance with the US
And the tiny nation of Liechtenstein, wedged between Austria and Switzerland, relies on Switzerland for defense after abolishing the army in the 19th century.
The challenge of balance
Finally, there is a kind of political neutrality that some countries seek to achieve in international relations, but that it does not imply legal status.
Singapore, and especially Taiwan, are examples of governments caught in the balancing act of competing with the conflicting interests in Asia of the United States, China, and Japan.
Singapore has managed to maintain a position of neutrality between the US and China for a long time but, in the case of Taiwan, the threat of Chinese aggression makes it especially difficult to apply such a policy.
About 120 countries are considered “non-aligned” with – or against any major power bloc.
But it is a “highly flexible” political concept, which was adopted, for example, by the former Yugoslavia, which was a very active member of the Non-Aligned Movement founded in 1961.
Serbia, the former republic of Yugoslavia, declared its armed neutrality in 2009 and is in negotiations to join the EU.
After the genocide of 1994 in the country, Rwanda announced permanent neutrality in 2009 after joining the Commonwealth.
Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss our best content. nest.
- Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!
123921077