Ukraine calls for “strong” NATO decision at Washington summit

Ukraine wants to see a “strong” decision made at a NATO summit in Washington next month as Kiev tries to advance its strategic goal of joining the military alliance, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s foreign policy adviser told Reuters.

Ihor Zhovkva, who spoke in an interview before traveling to Luxembourg for a European Union meeting that will formally launch accession talks for Ukraine, said Kiev wants the NATO summit to end with concrete results.

“I think this summit deserves a strong decision, including on Ukraine. Because, I mean, if there are no strong decisions on Ukraine, the summit will be useless,” he said in Kiev on Monday (25).

He did not specify what he thought this decision would entail.

Zelensky, who lobbied unsuccessfully for a political invitation to attend the Vilnius summit last year, said this year’s summit should resolve the issue of inviting Kiev.

While NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Washington have said they do not expect the alliance’s 32-member July 9-11 summit to invite Kiev to participate, Stoltenberg said he hopes to show that Ukraine is moving closer to membership. .

Allies have discussed possible language in the summit declaration that could send such a signal, such as declaring that Ukraine’s path to NATO is “irreversible.”

“We deserve a strong decision. Any decision (by) NATO requires consensus. And we all know this, and we understand that perhaps this time the consensus will be formed again (on) the last day before the summit,” declared Zhovkva.

So far, there has been no official response from the Ukrainian government to a Reuters report on Tuesday that advisers to US presidential candidate Donald Trump are considering telling Kiev it will only receive more US weapons if it enters into negotiations of peace.