Bucharest, Romania – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reaffirmed the military alliance’s commitment to ukraine On Tuesday, he said the war-torn country would one day become a member of the world’s largest security organisation.
Stoltenberg’s comment came in the form of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his NATO Counterparts gathered in Romania to mobilize urgently needed support for Ukraine, with the aim of ensuring that Moscow failed to defeat Ukraine as it bombarded energy infrastructure.
“The door to NATO is open,” Stoltenberg said. In reference to the recent admission of North Macedonia and Montenegro to the security alliance, he said, “Russia does not have a veto on the countries that join”. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “soon have Finland and Sweden as NATO members”. The Nordic neighbors applied for membership in April, worried that Russia could make them the next target.
“We also hold on to Ukraine’s membership,” said the former Norwegian prime minister. “At the same time, the main focus is now on supporting Ukraine, ensuring that President Putin does not win, but that Ukraine remains a sovereign nation in Europe.”
In essence, Stoltenberg reiterated a pledge made by NATO in Bucharest in 2008 – in the same huge Palace of Parliament where foreign ministers are meeting this week – that Ukraine and Georgia would also one day join the alliance.
Some officials and analysts believe the move – pressured by former US President George W Bush on NATO allies – was partly responsible for the war Russia launched on Ukraine in February. Stoltenberg disagreed.
“President Putin cannot deny sovereign nations from making their own sovereign decisions that are not a threat to Russia,” he said. “I think he is afraid of democracy and freedom, and that is the main challenge for him.”
Nevertheless, Ukraine will not be joining NATO anytime soon. With the Crimean peninsula annexed, and Russian troops and pro-Moscow separatists holding parts of the south and east, it is unclear what Ukraine’s borders will look like. Many of NATO’s 30 allies believe the focus should now be on defeating Russia.
US officials said during the two-day meeting, Blinken would announce substantial US aid for Ukraine’s energy grid. Ukraine’s networks have been battered across the country since early October by targeted Russian strikes, in what US officials call a Russian campaign to weaponize the coming winter.
“We are all paying the price for Russia’s war against Ukraine. But the price we pay is in money,” Stoltenberg said Tuesday, “while the price Ukrainians pay is in blood.”
The meeting in Romania – which shares NATO’s longest land border with Ukraine – is likely to see NATO pledge new non-lethal support to Ukraine: fuel, generators, medical supplies, winterization equipment and drone-jamming devices.
Individual allies are also likely to announce fresh supplies of military equipment to Ukraine – mainly the air defense systems that Kyiv desperately needs to defend its skies – but NATO, as an organisation, Not to avoid being dragged into an all-out war with a nuclear-armed Russia.
The minister will hold a working dinner with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, they will also address ways to increase support for partners that officials have said are facing Russian pressure – Bosnia, Georgia and Moldova.