KYIV: Ukraine’s President Zelensky on Sunday hoped for the “best possible outcome” from an upcoming NATO summit where Ukraine is hoping for a clear indication that it could one day join the military alliance.
After meeting with Poland President Andrzej Duda, he said the two sides discussed the NATO summit, which starts on Tuesday in Lithuania and agreed to “work together to take the best possible outcome for Kyiv.”
President Zelensky Eyes ‘Best Outcome’ from NATO Summit
Poland has said it wants “security guarantees” for the nation from other NATO countries.
President Zelensky says he does not expect Kyiv to actually join the alliance until after the war, but he hopes the NATO summit will give a “clear signal” on the intent to bring his country into the alliance.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden, who landed on Sunday in the UK on his way to the summit, said he hoped the NATO leaders would “lay out a rational path for Kyiv to be able to get into the alliance.”
Speaking to CNN, Biden said “I don’t think there is an agreement in NATO members about whether or not to bring Kyiv into the NATO family now, in the middle of a conflict,”.
Bringing Kyiv in now, President Biden said, would mean “war with Moscow” because of the alliance’s commitment to collective defense.
President Zelensky returned home from Turkey on Saturday after a regional trip to drum up support ahead of the NATO summit with Western partners, who have promised billions in military assistance.
President Zelensky was also accompanied by five top military commanders, who were supposed to have remained in Turkey until the end of the war under a prisoner swap agreement with Russia.
Their return to Russia angered Moscow which said it was “a violation” of the deal with Ankara.
Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan spoke to his Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday, and they discussed the issue of Ukraine’s commanders, according to a statement of the Russian foreign ministry.
