NATO’s secretary general said Wednesday that Ukraine’s accession to the Atlantic alliance “is not a question of if, but when,” stressing that allies have agreed that the path is “irreversible.”
At a press conference following the first day of the NATO summit, which will last until Thursday in Washington, Jens Stoltenberg justified the allies’ commitment to support Ukraine with an annual amount of at least 40 billion euros.
“We are doing this not because we want to prolong the war, but because we want to end it as quickly as possible,” he said.
And he added: “If we don’t want Ukraine to lose, if we don’t want to bow down before [o Presidente russo, Vladimir] Putin, we must demonstrate commitment.”
“At our meeting, we also decided to take further steps to bring Ukraine even closer to NATO,” he said, speaking of the country’s “irreversible path to integration” into the Atlantic alliance.
According to the NATO Secretary General, it is necessary to ensure that “when the time comes”, Ukraine joins the organization “without delay”.
“The question is not whether, but when,” he stressed.