NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that the alliance is expected to reaffirm Ukraine's future path to NATO membership.
He addressed a news conference in anticipation of the NATO leaders’ summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on July 11-12, and emphasized the 31-member group is preparing to "send a clear message, NATO stands united and Russia's aggression will not pay off."
He previewed that leaders gathered at the summit are ready "reaffirm that Ukraine will become a member of NATO and unite on how to bring Ukraine closer to its goal."
Further, concerning 'security guarantees' that Kiev has been expecting, he touted there will be a series of measures to make "Ukraine even stronger", including a multi-year assistance program "to ensure full interoperability” between the Ukrainian army and NATO.
Toward this end, a NATO-Ukraine Council will also be established, complete with an inauguration ceremony for which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be in attendance to oversee.
It must be recalled that President Putin has repeatedly stressed that a key rationale for his decision to send the Russian Army into Ukraine for its 'special operation' was the expansion of NATO military infrastructure up to Russia's doorstep.
Moscow leaders have further warned that Ukraine in NATO would certainly trigger automatic major war between Russia and the West.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued demanding to be 'fast-tracked' into NATO. Many alliance members, however, have suggested membership will only be possible after the war is over, as it would trigger the Article 5 common defense treaty, and a clash between nuclear-armed powers would result.
"If a type of agreement based on the Yermak-Rasmussen document is formalised, this is the best that Ukraine can hope for prior to the end of the war,” @skudelia tells @katiafarbar on the much-awaited NATO summit next week.https://t.co/nfIToNiIJH
— Tom Rowley (@te_rowley) July 7, 2023
Also at the upcoming summit, just days away, NATO leaders are expected to approve a new defense investment pledge which sets the current target of 2% of the gross domestic product on defense spending as the minimum. And yet a number of countries haven't yet reached the 2%, with some only recently doing so, such as Germany - with its newly unveiled defense budget.
