NATO ministers seem to have back peddled on Ukraine’s intergration into the alliance

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha along with his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis to coordinate next steps to advance Ukraine’s NATO integration following a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

The pair also spoke about how to strengthen Ukrainian forces and air defence systems from missiles and drones.

Sybiha said on X, “During my meeting with Gabrielius Landsbergis I thanked him for his leadership in rallying support for Ukraine.

“We also appreciate Lithuania’s investment in our defense industry. We coordinated next steps to advance Ukraine’s NATO integration, strengthen our warriors and our air defense,

NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs seem to have back peddled as they are now not discussing Ukraine’s membership into the alliance and the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is only concentrating on what is “necessary now.

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Rutte said, “As you know, Allies agree that the future of Ukraine is in NATO, and during the Washington Summit, we agreed on the irreversible path towards NATO, and before and after the Washington Summit, Allies have been working on building the bridge.”

The Secretary General added, “the bridge consists, for example, out of the individual bilateral security agreements between Allies and Ukraine, but also the implementation of all decisions being agreed in Washington.”

Rutte has now said, “So, this is happening step by step, what I would think that we have to concentrate, and we will concentrate over these next two days, very much on what is necessary now.”

He insisted, “what is necessary now is to make sure that military aid will go to Ukraine, because that is now crucial for them to, if they decide to do so, enter into talks with the Russians one day, they will do this from a position of strength.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Ukraine will refuse all security guarantees that substitutes NATO membership.

The Ministry said in a statement, “Having the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not settle for any alternatives, surrogates, or substitutes for Ukraine‘s full membership in NATO,” the Kyiv Independent reports.

In 1994 under the Budapest Memorandum Ukraine gave up their Soviet-era nuclear weapons in exchange for recognition of their borders and security guarantees by Washington and Russia along with other allies.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said, “the U.S. and Great Britain, which signed the Budapest Memorandum … France and China, which joined it,” and it “all the states participating in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons” in supporting Ukraine to join NATO.

Citing multiple diplomats Reuters reported that NATO members are likely to sidestep Ukraine’s call to join the alliance in the looming NATO meeting today and on Wednesday.

An unnamed senior NATO diplomat told Reuters, “It will take weeks and months to get consensus.

“I don’t see that happening tomorrow, I would be very surprised.”

In September 2022 Kyiv submitted an application to join the alliance, in July 2024 NATO confirmed Ukraine’s “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on 29 November, “I urge you to endorse the decision to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance as one of the outcomes of the NATO Foreign Ministerial Meeting on Dec. 3-4.”