NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the Ukrainian president that this Wednesday the Atlantic Alliance and Ukraine meet as partners, but he looks forward to the day when they meet “as allies.”
“The decisions taken here in Vilnius today mark the beginning of a new chapter in the relationship between NATO and Ukraine. Today we meet as equals, I look forward to the day when we meet as allies,” Jens Stolteberg declared at a conference Joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zekensky on the last day of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit.
Zelensky and Stoltenberg were speaking moments before the first meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council, a body that puts the country and allies on an equal footing, although Ukraine is outside the organization.
Stoltenberg insisted that an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO would only be extended “when the allies agree that the conditions are met.”
The NATO secretary general argued that it is necessary to ensure that “when this war ends” there are “credible commitments” for the security of Ukraine, “so that history does not repeat itself.”
Stoltenberg welcomed a commitment by some allies to provide “long-term security assistance” to Ukraine.
Source: TSF
