NATO races to design long-term package for Ukraine but differences remain
8002 Mins Read
NATO members are racing to complete a plan to provide long-term support to Ukraine, but are wrestling with how best to assure the country’s security until it can join the military alliance, according to U.S. and European officials.
With four weeks to go until a NATO summit in Vilnius that is expected to approve the plan, there is agreement that Ukraine cannot join the alliance while fighting is still underway against Russian forces, a position accepted in early June by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after months of pleading for speedy admission.
Alliance members are close to agreeing incremental steps to strengthen ties with Ukraine, including upgrading how NATO and Kyiv cooperate and a multi-year program to help Ukraine bring its security forces to NATO operational and technical standards, according to officials.
The allies have yet to resolve differences over how to address Ukraine’s desire for membership, which has been governed by a vague 2008 declaration that it will join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization without setting out how or when.
Diplomats and officials said options under discussion include continued supplies of advanced weapons, ammunition and equipment, which has already amounted to tens of billions of dollars.
Some suggested loosely basing this on U.S. arrangements with Israel, whereby NATO states would offer fixed bilateral military assistance for a long period of time.
Gabrielle Tarini, co-author of a new RAND Corporation report on Ukraine reconstruction, said that until Ukraine can join NATO the alliance needs to explore such measures.
“Finding an approach that will be strong enough to deter Russian re-attack, but that does not necessarily provoke Russia will be the key here for security arrangements,” she said.
Smaller steps are also in the works.
Stoltenberg said he expects the NATO-Ukraine Commission, a forum for cooperation, to be upgraded to become a NATO-Ukraine Council, where Kyiv would be accepted as an equal partner.
NATO will bolster a program of non-lethal aid for Ukraine’s security forces to help them transition from Soviet-era to NATO standards, he said.
