NATO states "frantically" preparing decision on security guarantees for Ukraine – Politico

A small group of NATO states are holding "frantic last-minute talks" to finalise a declaration on security guarantees for Ukraine ahead of a NATO summit in Lithuania on 11-12 July.

Source: This was reported by Politico, referencing four officials familiar with the negotiations, writes European Pravda

Details: The United States, Britain, France and Germany have been discussing this issue with Kyiv for several weeks, the US outlet writes. They also appealed to other NATO, EU and G7 allies.

The idea is to create an "umbrella" for countries that are willing to provide Ukraine with constant military assistance, even if the details differ by each state.

The effort is part of broader talks at NATO and among several groups of countries about how Western allies should demonstrate long-term support for Ukraine.

Consequently, the largest Allies are working to determine what interim security commitments can be provided to Ukraine at this time.

However, this view is not universal: countries on NATO's eastern flank are pushing for Ukraine to have a faster path to NATO membership, even as fighting continues.

The aim of the Western countries, according to officials in Berlin, Paris, London, and Brussels who all spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the delicate nature of the conversations, is to reveal their umbrella framework around NATO's annual meeting.

"A discussion is underway; it’s quite advanced, in fact it’s very advanced, and we’re very hopeful that it can be concluded by the end of the summit," a French official told reporters at a briefing.

Senior NATO officials agreed, telling reporters in a separate briefing that there are currently "frantic last-minute negotiations" taking place "on what this should look like."

Another NATO source with knowledge of the preparations has said that U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday in London, where their Staffs would confer to try and smooth out last-minute issues.

The initiative may eventually come down to promises to continue providing much of the assistance the Allies already provide: weapons, equipment, training, funding and intelligence.

But the intention is to offer a "more permanent signal of unity" for Ukraine, especially given that Kyiv is unlikely to get the firm NATO membership promise it wants at the summit.

"It is basically a guarantee towards Ukraine that we will, for a very long time to come, we will equip their armed forces, we will finance them, we will advise them, we will train them in order for them to have a deterrent force against any future aggression," said a senior NATO diplomat.

However, many of the details of this support would be saved for later. The envoy added it would be up to each interested nation to individually decide "what their commitment would be" with Ukraine. And it could be anything, including air defence, tanks, or anything else.

Last week, Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, issued an "appeal to all countries that want to support Ukraine," urging them to "make decisions for themselves that enable them to continue to keep up that support for one, two, three, and, if need to be, more years, because we do not know how long the military conflict will last."

Apart from the declaration on security guarantees that Western powers are finalising, NATO is also developing new ways to help the Ukrainian military for years to come.

NATO will decide at the meeting how to support Ukraine's defence modernization, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Friday. According to him, the strategy entails "a multi-year program of assistance to ensure full interoperability between the Ukrainian armed forces and NATO."

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