Remaining outside Nato is beneficial to Ireland on the world stage and helped the country to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
Speaking at the Consultative Forum on International Security in Dublin Castle on Monday, Mr Varadkar said it is debatable whether or not being in Nato makes Ireland more or less vulnerable to attack but that “it does help in some ways”.
He said it certainly helps in Ireland’s relationship with the Global South, “many of whom are suspicious of Nato because among its leading members are colonial powers”.
It is difficult to know whether Ireland would have won a place on the UN Security Council in 2021 if it was a Nato member, the Taoiseach said, but non-membership “was certainly a factor”. Not being a Nato member was also helpful in terms of helping to gather support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February of last year, he said.
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“In my conversations with prime ministers and presidents of countries of the Global South, when I ask them to support Ukraine, it is useful for us to be able to say that we are a non-Nato member and we are on the side of Ukraine, because we see this as an imperialist attack on that country,” he added.
Mr Varadkar was speaking on the third day of the forum, which has been criticised by some sectors as an attack on Irish neutrality. Protesters gathered at the entrance Dublin Castle during the morning.
Protests inside the event were more muted than on previous days. Two protesters who demanded a referendum on neutrality and accused the Government of “selling out our sovereignty”, interrupted proceedings before the Taoiseach addressed the forum.
One characterised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as US president Joe Biden’s “proxy war” and said Ireland is a “vassal state” of the US.
“Many of those things are untrue. Others are conspiracy theories,” Mr Varadkar said in response.
A protest group earlier gathered outside Dublin Castle calling for a referendum to copperfasten Ireland’s neutrality.
About 130 people, among them current and former MEPs, TDs and Dublin city councillors, demonstrated at the Palace Street gate to Dublin Castle at around 8am, with banners and placards from members of the Irish Anti-War Movement, the Irish Neutrality League and Éirígí visible. Many of the placards called for people to “defend neutrality” and “say no to Nato”.
Former Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna outlined the history of European treaties that the governments had asked Irish voters to approve, including the Single European Act, which she said “opened the door” to a range of measures bringing Ireland closer to a European common defence policy.
She said “people started to cop on” in the first vote to ratify the Nice Treaty “and we voted no”. But, she said, “what did the government do – it forced us to vote again”.
Ms McKenna is well known for a 1995 Supreme Court case, in which she argued successfully that it was unconstitutional for the government to spend taxpayers money promoting only one side of the argument in referendum campaigns.
[ International security forum more open-minded than critics claimOpens in new window ]
She said “we want neutrality enshrined in the Constitution in such a way that it supersedes any commitments to Europe”. She added “fair play to [President] Michael D Higgins, we are indebted to him.” Mr Higgins led criticism in recent weeks of what he described as a “drift” in Ireland’s foreign policy.
Sinn Féin councillor Michael Mac Donncha told the assembled crowd that he intended to go into the consultative forum.
”I will be saying to Nato in there, you are not welcome in our city. You are a nuclear military alliance and we want nothing to do with you.”
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the language used by the Government was “very Orwellian” in that its was saying neutrality was safe while “at the same time trying to join Nato”.
The Taoiseach said the forum does not have a preconceived outcome and that is not about joining Nato or changing Ireland’s policy of military neutrality.
Ireland is militarily neutral but not politically neutral, he said, noting that it assisted the Allies in the second World War and that it rejoiced when the Berlin Wall fell “and communism was defeated in Europe”.
It also voted by referendum for structured European defence and security co-operation, he said.
“It’s also why we condemned, from the very beginning, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There are no two sides to this. Russia is the aggressor, and Ukrainians have a right to defend themselves and deserve our help.”
In the past, Ireland’s geography has protected it for threats but this is no longer the case, he said. This was highlighted by the 2021 cyberattack on the HSE by a “criminal organisation based in Russia”.
In some ways, Ireland’s geography makes in more vulnerable. “We occupy a strategic position on the Atlantic seaboard on the western approach to Europe. And as an island nation, we face particular challenges.”
The Taoiseach named the cables in Irish waters and its reliance on others for its energy needs as specific vulnerabilities.
Energy can be moved mobilised as a tool of conflict, as demonstrated by Russia, he said.
“I believe we must face up to these security threats and we cannot face them alone. We need allies and we need friends. And above all we need allies that broadly share our values.”
Mr Varadkar’s references to Russia drew an angry response from Moscow’s ambassador in Ireland Yuriy Filatov. He said the Taoiseach’s comments are “another disingenuous attempt to exonerate the West from its responsibility for provoking [the] current security crisis in Europe”.
He claimed Ireland, through its support for Ukraine, is involved in the “malignant process” of worsening Europe’s security situation.
