The Green Party of the United Kingdom reiterated today its desire for the UK to quit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – once the war in Ukraine has ended.

Its co-leader Adrian Ramsay told Sky News he did not want to “change structures in the middle of a conflict,” but believes the UK’s long-term aim should be to leave the military alliance.

NATO has been given a new lease of life by Vladimir Putin’s aggressive assault, with the alliance forming the bedrock of aid to Kyiv to help it fight back Russian forces.

When asked on Sky News whether the Greens’ position on NATO has changed as a result of the Ukraine conflict, Ramsay confirmed it has not.

Asked to confirm again that the Greens want the UK to leave NATO, he added: “Yes, that is our long-term policy that we would like to see far greater focus on peacekeeping institutions and institutions that support a reduction in our nuclear weapons and countries moving away from nuclear weapons.”

“But in the short-term, of course we are not proposing moving out of NATO in the middle of a conflict.”

He told Sky: “We have a long-term policy about reviewing what structures we need to have to build peace in the world and we have to remember this conflict has happened at a time when we are part of NATO, when we are still seeing nuclear weapons dominate.”

“Of course we are not about changing structures in the middle of conflict and what we need to do at the moment is focus on how Ukraine can be supported in a wide variety of ways.”

Ramsay suggested the UK needs to focus on ‘peacekeeping and getting the parties to the table’ as well as “stronger economic action.”

He added: “Across Europe we are still sending a billion euros a day to Vladimir Putin’s war machine from buying Russian oil, gas and coal and we need to wean ourselves off this addiction, which of course the Greens want us to do.”

“If we want to avoid funding that war machine and really put strong economic pressure on Russia, that has really got to be stepped up.”

Ryan Dumont

Ryan (Tiohtià:ke/Montréal) is a political science student at Concordia University. His interests in green politics include healthcare reform, feminism, Indigenous affairs, homelessness, education, immigration, asylum-seekers and refugees, drug reform, workers' rights, and more.

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