NATO summit statement omits Ukraine's entry bid, $40 billion pledge, Bloomberg reports
A one-page draft of a joint declaration for the upcoming NATO summit omits Ukraine's membership aspirations and last year's pledge of over $40 billion in support, Bloomberg reported on June 11 after reviewing the draft.
This news signals that, for the first time since 2022, Russia's war against Ukraine will not be the chief focus of the annual NATO meeting, which is taking place on June 24-25 in The Hague.
The unusually brief document recognizes Russia as a threat to NATO but not as an aggressor in Ukraine. It also does not mention China, Bloomberg reported.
The communique of the 2024 summit in Washington named Beijing as a "decisive enabler" of Russia's war against Ukraine. Last year's gathering also included a declaration that Ukraine's path to NATO is "irreversible" and promised more than $40 billion in additional military aid.
This year, the document will solely focus on defense spending, as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes NATO partners to hike the military expenditure benchmark from 2% to 5% of GDP.
The final version of the statement can still change, Bloomberg reported.
The brevity of the communique and the summit itself, as well as the decreased focus on Ukraine, stems from the effort to avoid conflict between Trump and European allies.
In a sharp break from former U.S. President Joe Biden, the Trump administration has not approved any new military aid packages to Ukraine and signaled its intent to reduce assistance for Kyiv in the next year's budget.
The U.S. president initially vowed to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow but became increasingly less engaged in the process as the negotiations stalled and Russia only intensified its attacks against Ukraine.
According to Bloomberg, NATO allies will pledge to allocate at least 3.5% of GDP to defense needs and 1.5% to protecting infrastructure and civil preparedness by 2032. Member states will also consider counting their contributions to Ukraine as part of the new defense spending targets, the news outlet reported.
The summit was preceded by rumors that President Volodymyr Zelensky would not be invited to participate for the first time due to U.S. opposition.
Later, the speculations were dispelled after the Dutch media reported that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had invited the Ukrainian leader to attend.
Read also: As Russia inches closer to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, new Ukrainian region might soon be at war
We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
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