NATO will not invite Ukraine to its Lithuanian summit in July, as President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped. The alliance has also so far failed to agree on a strategy for Russia.
Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday after the meeting of defense ministers in Brussels that there will be no discussion at the Vilnius summit about inviting Ukraine to join NATO. Instead, a new NATO-Ukraine Council will be established, meeting for the first time in Vilnius with Selenksyj.
The US and Germany are currently resisting inviting Kiev to join. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in Brussels that admitting a country at war “is out of the question”. The 31 NATO countries can only extend the invitation unanimously.
No agreement on Russia strategy
In addition, the alliance initially failed to agree on a new strategy for Russia. Stoltenberg stated only that they had moved closer. A NATO diplomat said Turkey had blocked an agreement.
The goal of the heads of department was to develop a defense plan in the event of an attack from Russia for the first time since the end of the Cold War. The reason for the strategic reorientation was the attack on Ukraine.
Turkey has vetoed it due to geographical constraints, the diplomat said. Cyprus also played a role in this. The Mediterranean island is divided into a Greek and a Turkish part. Unlike the Greek Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish part is not recognized internationally. However, the US expects Turkey to give up its resistance. The plans are expected to be finalized at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July, a senior US official told Reuters.
Secret military plans
Actually, the defense ministers in Brussels should approve thousands of pages of secret military plans. They describe how NATO would react to a Russian attack. For decades, the alliance had no need for large-scale defense plans as post-Soviet Russia no longer posed an existential threat.
Source: Krone
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