NATO leaders have pledged to provide Ukraine with at least $43 billion in military aid next year to bolster its defenses against Russia and have formally declared Kiev on an “irreversible path” to joining the Western military alliance.
The pledges, included in a final communiqué following the NATO summit in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, came as alliance members also announced individual and joint measures to enhance the security of Ukraine and Europe.
This includes the announcement by the United States, the Netherlands and Denmark that the first NATO-supplied F-16 fighter jets would be in the hands of Ukrainian military pilots this summer. The US has also said it will deploy long-range missiles in Germany by 2026, an important step aimed at countering what allies say is Russia’s growing threat to Europe.
The move will send Germany the most powerful US weapons to be based on the European continent since the Cold War. It would have been banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1987, but it collapsed in 2019.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media platform ”.
“Ukraine’s future is in NATO”
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, D.C., said NATO has committed to most of what Zelenskyy has been asking for, noting that in addition to the F-16s, the alliance has promised to supply Ukraine with dozens of air defense systems. .
“In particular, the US agreed to provide Ukraine with four Patriot missile systems, while other members ensure the maintenance and maintenance of these systems. So the Ukrainian president got most of what he was asking for – plus one very vital thing: NATO membership,” Hanna said.
The alliance’s statement, declaring that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO”, promised to continue supporting Kiev “on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including membership of NATO”. But the invitation would come “when the Allies agree and the conditions are met,” he said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that Ukraine will not immediately join the ranks of the alliance, but insisted that this must happen after the end of the war to ensure that Russia never attacks Kiev again.
Regarding NATO’s global assistance, he said: “We are not doing this because we want to prolong a war. We are doing this because we want to end a war as quickly as possible.”
The US and some other countries opposed Ukraine’s membership during the conflict with Russia to avoid an escalation of tensions that could lead to a bigger war. They also stressed that Ukraine must take significant steps to combat corruption, as well as other systemic reforms.
The NATO statement also reinforced previous language about China, calling it a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and saying that Beijing continues to pose systemic challenges to Euro-Atlantic security.
Stoltenberg told reporters it was the first time the 32 allies jointly labeled China as a decisive enabler of Russia’s war and called it an important message. He said NATO is not an organization that imposes sanctions, but added: “Ultimately, it will be up to individual allies to make decisions, but I think the message we send from NATO at this summit is very clear.”
Anxiety over Trump
The NATO chief also gave an impassioned defense of the military alliance itself on Wednesday when reporters asked about the possibility that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a critic of NATO, might withdraw U.S. support for the alliance if he wins the elections in November. The questions come amid rising European anxiety about 81-year-old President Joe Biden’s staying power after he fumbled a June 27 debate.
Stoltenberg, without naming Trump, said US criticism of the alliance “has nothing to do with NATO. This is about NATO allies not investing enough in NATO. And that changed.”
Although Trump has renewed his threat not to defend any NATO member from a Russian attack if its military spending does not meet the alliance’s target of at least 2% of its gross domestic product (GDP), the number of allies meeting this target since 2021 has increased. increased from six to 23.
“The United States was understood,” Stoltenberg said. “Allies acted.”
Meanwhile, Trump was asked several times on Fox News Radio if he wants the US to leave NATO. He replied, “No, I want them to pay their bills.”
Biden, meanwhile, underscored the importance of NATO by hosting the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s formal decision-making body, at a convention center in Washington, D.C., noting that since taking office, not only has military spending increased , but the number of tactical groups has doubled on NATO’s eastern flank.
“We can and will defend every inch of NATO territory and we will do it together,” said the US leader.
The summit of the leaders of the 32 NATO countries – plus Pacific partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, as well as Ukraine – is expected to be one of Biden’s last appearances at an international forum before the US elections. And with less than four months until the election, Biden’s political difficulties weighed on the meeting.
NATO leaders “see that Joe Biden is probably not the leader they found one, two or three years ago, and they are concerned about that because [he has brought] NATO returns to the center of American national security policy,” said former US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley.
“And they also recognize that while these pronouncements are valuable and important and vital to the future of Ukraine, they potentially have… a shelf life of eight months, given Donald Trump’s very established view, where he is skeptical of all alliances and to NATO in particular.”
Still, pledges of aid are vital in the short term, Crowley said.
“One way or another, Ukraine must be sustained, it must be rebuilt and its sovereignty must be protected,” he said. And one of the routes is to “strengthen the Ukrainian position ahead of a necessary negotiation, as I think Trump’s instinct will be to go to negotiations and try to get the best deal available, whenever he decides to do so.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
