Ireland will not be applying for Nato membership nor changing its policy of military neutrality, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has insisted.
His remarks in the Dáil on Tuesday came as as he defended the Government’s upcoming forum on international security policy from a suggestion its panels are “packed to the rafters” with people from Nato.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that President Michael D Higgins “rang the alarm bells about the dangerous drift in Ireland’s foreign policy away from neutrality” and “raised concerns” about the composition of the forum in an interview with the Business Post at the weekend.
Mr Boyd Barrett argued that Mr Higgins’s remarks echo what his party has been trying to say for months that the Government is seeking to use Russia’s brutal and unjustifiable war in Ukraine “to try and move Ireland away from neutrality and towards greater involvement with the project of EU militarisation and with Nato”.
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He alleged that the forum to begin later this week is “dripping, packed to the rafters with Nato employees, people who’ve worked with Nato, people associated with the military industrial complex, generals, brigadiers, lieutenant commanders of the military” and pro-Nato and pro-EU militarisation academics.
He said: “In contrast, one speaker, one speaker who has a record of pro-neutrality, anti-war activism.”
Cybersecurity
Mr Boyd Barrett asked Mr Varadkar if he would acknowledge that the forum “is stacked for pro-Nato, pro-militarisation, anti-neutrality, propaganda”.
Mr Varadkar said he wanted to confirm “once again” that Ireland was going to remain militarily neutral and “we are not going to apply for Nato membership or membership of any military alliance”.
He said the security threats Ireland faced had changed, listing cybersecurity, international terrorism and espionage.
“We have to think about that as a country and that’s why the Tánaiste [Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Micheál Martin] has established this forum to do exactly that.”
He said: “The forum is not a binary discussion on neutrality and was never intended to be.”
Mr Varadkar said there were 80 people moderating or speaking on panels over four days and they included people who had been involved in peacekeeping and peacebuilding and conflict resolution internationally as well as academics and international aid organisations.
He said “of the 18 panel discussions over the four days, only one is about Nato and only two are about neutrality”.
Opposition
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy complained that there was no formal role for the Opposition in the forum.
He said representatives of the Government would have “no less than five opportunities where people will be indulged with lengthy uninterrupted speeches from the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Green Party leader yet all the while Opposition voices are expected to sit on their hands while Government speak from their taxpayer-funded pulpit.”
Mr Varadkar said: “Opposition parties, to the best of my knowledge, have been invited to participate in the forum.
“They mightn’t have been asked to give a keynote speech but they have been invited to participate in the forum and we’d welcome that they do so.”
Mr Carthy said: “There is a distinction between being invited to sit in the audience and listen to Government representatives as opposed to being invited to participate in the debate.”
Mr Varadkar said: “The aim of the forum is to hear from a variety of partners about their foreign and security policy choices and it will be an interactive forum. People will be invited to speak and make their contributions.”
