NATO countries feverishly negotiate security guarantees for Ukraine ahead of Vilnius summit - Politico
A group of NATO nations is in the midst of feverish negotiations in the last minutes before the NATO summit to finalize a declaration on security guarantees for Ukraine.
This is stated by Politico, referring to their own sources, reports Censor.NЕТ.
The US, UK, Germany, and France have been negotiating with Kyiv for weeks on security guarantees. Other NATO, EU, and G-7 countries are also involved.
The idea is to create a kind of "umbrella" for all countries willing to provide military assistance to Ukraine, even if the details differ from country to country.
These talks are part of a broader negotiation about what ultimate security guarantees for Ukraine should look like. Most allies agree that Ukraine can join "at the earliest after the war". Therefore, the major Allies are working to determine what interim security commitments they can provide to Ukraine in the meantime.
"The discussion is ongoing, it is quite progressing, even very progressing, and we very much hope that it can be finalized before the end of the summit," the unnamed French official said.
The initiative may ultimately boil down to pledges to continue to provide much of the assistance that allies already provide: weapons, equipment, training, funding, and intelligence.
But the intention is to offer a "more permanent signal of unity" to Ukraine, especially since Kyiv is unlikely to get the firm promise of NATO membership it wants at the summit.
"It's basically a guarantee to Ukraine that we will continue to equip its armed forces, fund them, advise them, train them for a very long time to ensure that they have a deterrent against any future aggression," said a senior NATO diplomat.
