President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced on Thursday evening in his speech to his compatriots that six countries have already joined the framework agreement proposed by the G7 – a group of democratic countries with the strongest economies – announced at the NATO summit in Vilnius, through which Kyiv provides security guarantees before actually joining the of the Western military alliance, News.ro reports.

“We are continuing our very successful agreement on Ukraine’s security guarantees on the way to NATO by preparing bilateral agreements. Only a day after Vilnius, six countries have already joined the seven largest democracies of the world, with which we agreed on security guarantees yesterday,” Zelenskyi said.

These are six states: the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden, he said, thanking them.

“I am sure that the circle of guarantors will expand. Ukraine and the United States will keep the list of states that will join our joint statement with the G7 on security guarantees on the way to NATO,” Zelenskyy said.

On Wednesday, on the sidelines of the NATO summit, the G7 countries announced an international framework for ensuring Ukraine’s long-term security against Russia. A number of other military packages were announced at bilateral meetings between Zelenskyi and NATO leaders.

The G7, which includes the US, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Italy and Britain, as well as the European Union, said other countries could also sign the framework agreement to make their own commitments to Ukraine. Reuters, for example, notes that Poland and Romania (where the training center for Ukrainian F-16 pilots will be located) can be signatories of such bilateral agreements within the framework proposed by the G7.

Zelensky is already thinking about next year’s summit

In Vilnius, “we met with all the members of the Big Seven, and we also met with many NATO partners. Now is the time to turn each such agreement into a concrete result,” Zelenskyy said during a speech on Thursday evening.

Speaking to his compatriots about the results of the Vilnius summit, he said that Ukraine is already starting to prepare for the next NATO summit in Washington, suggesting that this could be the time horizon that NATO avoided for Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

“At the summit in Vilnius, we reached agreements good for Ukraine with almost all partners. “I had a very good meeting with President Biden and his team: Defense Minister Austin, National Security Advisor Sullivan,” Zelensky emphasized.

“We have the Ukraine-NATO Council, and this format should work significantly. We prepare proposals for our partners. We have new agreements regarding weapons, equipment, and aviation, and we are currently clarifying them. (…) In the time remaining before the summit in Washington, we must work with our partners to review everything we discussed in Vilnius and form new common positions that Ukraine and our soldiers rightfully deserve. Clearly,” the Ukrainian president noted.

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