BRUSSELS, December 16. /TASS/. NATO continues its expansion and has already admitted Montenegro and North Macedonia, despite Russia's protests, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during his meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Secretary General admitted that the new NATO Strategic Concept that will be approved in June 2022 in Madrid only stipulates partnership relations between the Alliance and Ukraine.
"NATO has proven over the last years that our open door policy is not something that we only support in words, but also in deeds, partly by inviting two new countries - Montenegro and North Macedonia […] despite protests from Russia," Stoltenberg said, adding that the Alliance will not agree to a compromise with Russia, which demands a review of the Alliance’s promise to one day accept Ukraine and Georgia, which it made in 2008 in Bucharest.
He reiterated that the Alliance desires dialogue with Russia and once against proposes to hold a Russia-NATO Council meeting, which has effectively become defunct after NATO expelled a group of Russian diplomats from Brussels, forcing Moscow to shut down its mission to NATO and to expel the NATO mission from Moscow.
Stoltenberg underscored that, in his opinion, Russia has no vote in the matter of accession of "sovereign nations" to the Alliance.
"It up to Ukraine and the 30 [NATO] allies to decide when Ukraine is ready to join the Alliance," he noted.
However, he did not name an option for Ukraine to become a NATO member as mentioned in the upcoming Strategic Concept, which will define NATO’s development priorities until 2030.
The Secretary General opined that the NATO military support to Ukraine does not pose a "threat to Russia."
"I welcome the support that NATO allies provide [to Ukraine] both when it comes to training, exercise and advice, but also the fact that NATO allies provide different types of equipment," Stoltenberg said.