NATO leaders will discuss assistance to Ukraine on upcoming summit, but not its accession

State leaders of the North Atlantic Alliance will focus on three critical points concerning Ukraine at the summit in Washington, but they will not discuss its NATO membership or potential accession timelines.

Source: The Washington Post, as reported by European Pravda 

Details: According to Rob Bauer, Chair of the NATO Military Committee, the Alliance's summit in Washington will address three areas of support for Ukraine. The mission to bring Kyiv closer to NATO membership will include four aspects: 

• coordination of Ukrainian military training;
• coordination of military assistance among NATO members;
• supply of military aid through logistics hubs; 
• discussions on the future of Ukraine's Armed Forces after the war.

Bauer recalled that the first three concerns are already under the jurisdiction of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (Ramstein format), which is overseen by the United States.

"But it is an important signal if those efforts – 50 nations, through the US, helping Ukraine – are going to be coordinated through NATO," Bauer emphasised. 

The second significant topic concerning Ukraine at the summit, according to the Military Committee head, is assuring reliable financing of military support to Kyiv, rather than "a discussion on a monthly basis".

"And the third element is there is this new joint analysis and training centre in Poland that is going to be set up to make sure that we learn the right lessons from the war in Ukraine, together with Ukraine and with NATO," he said. 

At the same time, Bauer warned that the issue of Kyiv's membership in the Alliance, as well as the timing for such membership, would not be discussed in Washington, because no one can foresee when the war in Ukraine will end.

The discussions concerns moving the coordinating work on Ukraine from the Ramstein framework to NATO, due to the unpredictability of future US policy in the case of Donald Trump's victory in the upcoming presidential election. The new plan should be finalised during the meeting in Washington.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg anticipates that the NATO summit will approve a new US$40 billion scheme for supporting Ukraine's defence.

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