In addition, Stoltenberg announced that he will travel to Turkey “in the near future” to discuss the accession of the Nordic country, and welcomed the fact that the new Swedish anti-terrorist legislation has entered into force today.
NATO foreign ministers discussed on Thursday possible security guarantees for Ukraine to avoid future conflicts such as the current Russian invasion of the country, and also urged the completion of Sweden’s accession process to the transatlantic organization, pending ratification. from Turkey and Hungary.
“Our focus today was on how we can bring Ukraine closer to NATO, where it belongs,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference after a meeting of allied foreign ministers in Oslo.
The politician stressed that the allies are already providing Ukraine with “unprecedented help” and was sure that the Ukrainian forces “now have the necessary capabilities to liberate more occupied territories”, but assured that “we have to do more”.
For this reason, ahead of the allied summit in Vilnius in July, they are working on a “multi-year aid package” with “solid financing”, which will guarantee “the deterrence and defense of Ukraine in the long term”, will help rebuild its sector security and defense and will support the transition from Soviet-era doctrines, equipment and training to others of “full interoperability with NATO”.
“In Moscow they think that democracies are lazy, that we are not willing to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. And we are going to prove the opposite,” he added.
The allies also discussed the conversion of the current NATO-Ukraine Commission into a NATO-Ukraine Council, a “significant step” according to Stoltenberg, as it entailed a joint consultative forum in which the Alliance and Kiev would sit “as equals” to “debate key issues for our security”.
Precisely NATO framed its relationship with Moscow, before it launched its large-scale invasion against Ukraine, in a NATO-Russia Council.
On the other hand, the ministers spoke today of Ukraine’s aspirations to join the Alliance, and Stoltenberg stressed that “all the allies agree that the NATO door remains open” and that Russia “does not have the right of veto” about it.
“All the allies agree that Ukraine will become a member of NATO,” a position allied leaders took at their Bucharest summit in 2008.
However, the politician made it clear that “we all agree that the most important thing now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign and independent state.”
“We don’t know when the war will end. But we must ensure that, when it does, we will have credible agreements that guarantee Ukraine’s security in the future” and that “break the cycle of aggression from Russia,” Stoltenberg said.
He acknowledged that what kinds of security mechanisms are agreed with kyiv have yet to be decided.
“But the idea of preventing history from repeating itself by stopping President Putin from further undermining European security, that is the goal, and then we discussed the means to achieve it,” he said.
The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, stated that in the meeting “it has become clear that progress has to come from the Vilnius summit with respect to what was proposed in 2008” to Ukraine in Bucharest.
“The world has changed. Ukraine and the relationship with NATO have also changed and Russia’s position towards Ukraine is that of a war of aggression. Therefore, the message that comes out of Vilnius has to be different and has to be be a step further than what was carried out in Bucharest”, he commented.
On possible security guarantees for Kiev, he admitted that at the meeting “there have been several ideas on the table, but none have received support and we have not reached a conclusion on the matter.”
“It is something on which we are going to continue reflecting,” he commented.
His Lithuanian counterpart, Gabrielius Landsbergis, urged the transatlantic organization to find “a very specific, very concrete answer about how Ukraine is going to get closer to NATO and one day become a member of the Alliance.”
“There is an understanding that the war has to end for Ukraine to become a full member, but if we don’t talk about it now, it’s not fair to a country that has been waiting in the lobby for a long time,” he said.
The Estonian incumbent, Margus Tsahkna, affirmed that the Alliance is a “clear and solid” security guarantee for Ukraine after the war.
Many of the ministers hoped that Sweden would have become a full member of NATO when the allied summit is held in Vilnius.
In addition, Stoltenberg announced that he will travel to Turkey “in the near future” to discuss the accession of the Nordic country, and welcomed the fact that the new Swedish anti-terrorist legislation has entered into force today.
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