NATO chief: Alliance did not promise Ukraine membership as result of any peace talks

Feb 13, 2025 - 16:00

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels. Credit: NATO Press Service

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said that NATO’s commitment to Ukraine’s membership is not related to any future peace talks.

Rutte’s comment comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday 12 February, announcing plans for immediate negotiations regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Rutte recalled that NATO had made commitments regarding Ukraine’s future membership at the summit in Washington. “But it was never agreed that if peace talks did or did not start, those peace talks would end – in any case and always – with NATO membership,” he added.

The secretary-general further emphasized that regardless of the outcome of any negotiations, the Alliance must “make sure that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin never, ever tries to attack Ukraine again,” and such assurances can take many forms.

“But Ukraine was never promised that as part of the ‘peace agreement’ they would be in NATO,” Rutte concluded.

On 12 February, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared Ukraine’s NATO membership and restoration of its pre-2014 borders “unrealistic” during his first Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Brussels, while no new military aid package was announced at what has historically been a crucial forum for Western support.

On 9 February, Rutte said that any agreement must result in a stronger agreement than the earlier Minsk Agreement, which was concluded in 2014, and did not prevent renewed Russian aggression.

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