NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that he expects leaders at a US-led summit of the alliance next week to “confirm that Ukraine will become a member of NATO”.

Head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg and President of Ukraine Volodymyr ZelenskyiPhoto: Yefrem Lukatsky / AP / Profimedia

According to Sky News, Stoltenberg said that he expects the leaders of the Alliance to agree on a “package of three elements to bring Ukraine closer to NATO.”

  • The first of them will be “a multi-year assistance program to ensure full interoperability between the Ukrainian armed forces and NATO,” he said at a press conference in Brussels.
  • Secondly, Stoltenberg said, “we will improve our political ties by creating the Ukraine-NATO Council.”
  • Thirdly, “I expect that our leaders will once again confirm that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, and will unite on how to bring Ukraine closer to this goal,” the head of the alliance continued.

According to Reuters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is on a diplomatic tour, visiting Sofia, Prague, Bratislava and Istanbul as part of a tour aimed at supporting Kyiv’s faster path to NATO membership ahead of next week’s summit.

Ukraine wants a clear signal from NATO at the July 11-12 summit in Vilnius that it can join the military alliance when Russia’s war against its country ends.

Although Ukraine wants to join as soon as possible, NATO members are divided on how quickly the move should be made, with some wary of moves they believe could bring the alliance closer to war with Russia.

The summit will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania.

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