In the long 5- doan joint statement issued after the NATO summit in The Hague (Netherlands) on June 25, Ukraine was only mentioned twice, with the concise content: The NATO bloc is committed to continuing to support Kiev and maintain direct contributions to Ukraine's defense industry.
There has been no statement regarding the process of joining NATO - something that the regime of President Volodymyr Zelensky has pursued for many years. The statement also did not mention new military aid plans, nor Ukraine's security future after the conflict with Russia.
Instead, most of the joint statements focus on the goal of increasing defense spending. Member states have agreed to set a target of spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035, in response to the so-called long-term threat from Russia to the security of the European - Atlantic region.
Russia has repeatedly denied the accusations and said it has no intention of attacking any country. Moscow called the use of Russia as a "threat" by the West an excuse to increase military spending and trigger a new arms race.
Notably, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was absent from any official meetings of the summit. He was only invited to attend an unofficial dinner before the conference, but was not invited to speak or participate in discussions at all.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has publicly opposed Ukraine's admission to NATO, revealed that some member states, including the United States, have deliberately avoided meeting Mr. Zelensky on this occasion.
This marks a marked change from last year's summit, where Ukraine's entry into NATO and direct confrontation with Russia were the focus of the agenda, Mr. Orban said. At that time, the NATO joint statement also affirmed that Ukraines entry into NATO is irreversible.
Since the 2024 NATO Summit, many NATO leaders, including US President Donald Trump, have shown their lack of enthusiasm for the admission of Ukraine. Mr. Trump once stated that Kiev could "forget its dream of joining NATO" and said that the ambition to join the bloc was the reason for the conflict that broke out from the beginning.
Russia has repeatedly warned that Ukraine's efforts to join NATO are a "red line" and this is one of the core causes of the current conflict. Moscow has demanded that Kiev make a legal commitment that it will not join any military alliance.
