BRUSSELS (AP) – North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte on Tuesday dodged a question about Ukraine’s possible membership in the military alliance, saying his priority now is acquiring more weapons. He said the mission was to strengthen the country’s hand in future peace negotiations with Russia.
Rutte’s remarks came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, ahead of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting: Expanding alliance membership Moving to areas currently under Kiev control could end Ukraine’s ‘hot phase’ almost three years of war In Ukraine, Russian forces are moving deeper to the neighbors to the west.
“The front is not moving east. It is moving slowly westward,” Rutte said. “Therefore, we must ensure that Ukraine is in a strong position, and then the Ukrainian government should decide on the next steps in terms of starting peace negotiations and how to proceed with them.”
At a July summit in Washington, leaders of 32 NATO countries insisted that Ukraine was on an “irreversible” path to membership. However, as the war intensifies, some countries, led by the United States, are reluctant to move forward until borders are clearly defined. Ukraine’s participation would require unanimous consent from all 32 countries.
NATO was founded on the principle that an attack on an Ally should be considered an attack on the Allies as a whole, and the Alliance has consistently sought to avoid becoming drawn into a broader war with nuclear-armed Russia. Ta.
President Zelensky claimed that once the open conflict ended, the proposal to join NATO could be extended to all areas of the country that fall within internationally recognized borders.
When pressed by reporters about this, Prime Minister Rutte said: “I would argue that we should stop talking step by step about what a peace process should look like.”
He said the first step must be to “ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to be in a strong position when peace negotiations begin.”
Ukrainian officials vowed Tuesday that they do not oppose half-measures or stopgap solutions regarding NATO membership.
Citing the “bitter experience of the Budapest memorandum,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strongly worded statement saying that Ukraine “has no intention of settling for any substitute, replacement, or replacement for Ukraine’s full membership in NATO.” did.
Under an international agreement signed in the Hungarian capital 30 years ago, Ukraine will give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal, the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the United States and the United States. agreed. Kingdom.
A Foreign Ministry statement called the Budapest agreement “a monument to short-sightedness in making strategic security decisions.”
“We are convinced that the only real guarantee of Ukraine’s security and deterrent against further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other countries is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the spokesperson said. .
At NATO headquarters in Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibikha showed reporters a copy of the Budapest document.
“This document, this paper, failed to ensure Ukraine’s security and transatlantic security. Therefore, we must avoid repeating such mistakes,” he said in English.
Reflecting on his recent meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump, Rutte said he emphasized that China, North Korea and Iran are influencing the Russian side and endangering the US and the Asia-Pacific region. Ta.
“Whenever we reach an agreement on the Ukraine issue, it has to be a good agreement, because you can never high-five Kim Jong-un or Xi Jinping or anyone else,” Rutte said, adding that this was a sign of North Korea’s leadership. He said he only wanted to encourage others. South Korea and China support the use of force elsewhere.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Ukraine’s allies must “do what is necessary to support our self-defense for as long as necessary”, but acknowledged the war would end with negotiations and potential compromises. .
In a speech late on Monday, Starmer said the allies would “put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations, conditioned on a just and lasting peace that guarantees Ukraine’s security, independence and right to choose its own future.” It is necessary to ensure that the
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Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Jill Lawless in London contributed.
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