Only Ukraine "entitled"

Only Ukraine "entitled" to talk about territorial integrity, Spanish FM says

From CNN's Billy Stockwell

Only Ukraine is “entitled” to talk about issues relating to the country’s territorial integrity, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Monday, as negotiations continue over the wording of a US proposal to end the war in Ukraine.

The original draft proposal put forward by the US put pressure on Kyiv to cede territory and promise not to join NATO in exchange for an end to the war — both long-standing Kremlin demands. Albares said these matters, respectively, are for Ukraine and NATO to decide.

“Ukraine is a sovereign country that has a democratically elected government. The government of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky. They are the only ones that are entitled to talk about things that are very basic and fundamental principles of international law and world order, such as territorial integrity,” Albares told CNN’s Max Foster on Monday.

A counterproposal drafted by the UK, France and Germany made an array of key changes, including striking out the language regarding the restriction of further NATO expansion and removing references to territorial concessions.

Albares said the decision about who can join NATO is not for a “third party” to decide, but rather the military alliance itself.

“For me, it’s very clear that anything that is related to who is going to join NATO, European Union, is to us, to the member states to decide,” he said. “It wouldn’t be acceptable that a third party outside NATO or European Union tell us or decide who can go in or not.”