NATO summit draft drops pledge on Ukraine's future membership
Illustrative photo: NATO does not plan to promise Ukraine membership in the final document of the summit in The Hague (Getty Images)
The final document of the upcoming NATO summit is likely to sidestep the promise to accept Ukraine into the Alliance in the future, Bloomberg reports.
According to the outlet, the draft final document of the summit does not mention the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO. This marks a shift from previous summit communiqués, which described Ukraine’s path to NATO as inevitable.
Bloomberg also writes that the draft communiqué does not include a commitment to provide Ukraine with $40 billion in military aid. This decision was made by the Alliance member states following last year's summit.
The draft focuses exclusively on defense spending, which is a sharp contrast to last year's final statement, which was over 5,000 words long and included a promise of long-term security assistance to Ukraine.
Sources say that not only will the final statement be short, but the summit itself will be brief. The plan is to have just a dinner with the King of the Netherlands and a single working session on defense spending. This is how NATO wants to avoid public arguments between President Donald Trump and his allies.
Zelenskyy invited to NATO summit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to take part in the NATO summit scheduled to take place in The Hague from June 24 to 26.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha emphasized that for the President to attend such an event, Western allies must adopt strong decisions that would provide meaningful support to Ukraine.
