NATO: Ukraine has 'moved closer' to alliance

NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg on Friday said Ukraine has "moved closer" to the Western alliance in the past decade and called for a "framework to ensure Ukraine's future security" once the war with Russia ends.

Speaking after a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels, Stoltenberg said the members of the transatlantic alliance had agreed to "work towards creating a Ukraine-NATO council" in which Ukraine's status would be "equal to that of NATO member states."

"We all agree that Ukraine has already moved closer to NATO over the past decade," Stoltenberg said. "We agree that NATO's door is open — that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance and that this is a decision for allies and Ukraine to make. Russia does not have a veto."

Stoltenberg also stated that NATO was taking Russia's decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus "seriously," condemning Moscow's "dangerous rhetoric" but insisting that "so far, we haven't seen changes in Russia's nuclear posture."

No agreement on new defense plan

Sources told the Reuters news agency that ministers had failed to reach an agreement over the alliance's first defense plans since the end of the Cold War, with one diplomat saying that Turkey had blocked the decision over the wording of geographical locations, particularly with regard to Cyprus.

A senior US official said, "While regional plans were not formally endorsed today, we anticipate these plans will be part of a series of deliverables for the Vilnius Summit in July."

Stoltenberg said he expected NATO allies to make a "more ambitious commitment to defense spending" at next month's summit in Lithuania, at which he also said he was "confident that we will find consensus on how to move Ukraine close to NATO."

Stoltenberg is pushing for NATO members to commit to 2% of GDP as a "minimum amount," rather than a target, which Germany has agreed to meet for the first time next year.

Less than a third of NATO members meet the 2% target, with countries like Italy, Canada and Luxembourg voicing particular concerns. But German defense minister Boris Pistorius insisted that it "should be attainable for most economies, even if not immediately."

US: 'Russians have shown the same five vehicles 1,000 times'

Elsewhere at the conference, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he had "encouraged" his new Turkish counterpart to approve Sweden's accession to the alliance.

Neutral throughout the Cold War, Sweden applied for NATO membership along with neighbors Finland in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But so far, only the Finns have officially joined, with Sweden's application blocked by Turkey, which claims that the Swedes are harboring militants it would like to see extradited.

Asked about losses of NATO-supplied equipment in fighting in eastern Ukraine, Austin said: "I think the Russians showed us the same five armored vehicles about 1,000 times from ten different angles. In truth, the Ukrainians still have a lot of combat capabilities."

Finally, he expressed optimism that he would eventually be able to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart after being snubbed by Beijing during an event in Singapore earlier in June.

"I'm confident that, over time, that's going to happen," he said. "I've not reached out since [Singapore]. But the door is open and my phone line is open, so they can call at any time. And we will continue to work to make sure that we have open lines of communication."

mf/sms (Reuters, dpa)