BRUSSELS, July 7. /TASS/. NATO will have to negotiate a three-point plan during the summit in Vilnius that will take the Ukraine closer to the accession to the alliance, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a press conference Friday.
"I expect Allied leaders will agree a package with three elements, to bring Ukraine closer to NATO," said Mr Stoltenberg. The package will include a multi-year program of assistance to ensure interoperability; upgraded political ties - with President Zelensky attending the inaugural meeting of a new NATO-Ukraine Council; and a reaffirmation that Ukraine will become a member of NATO," Stoltenberg said.
Answering a question what is the difference between 2008, when NATO said after the Bucharest summit that Kiev is entitled to join the alliance but stopped at that, and today, Stoltenberg said:
"One important difference is, of course, that Ukraine has come much closer to NATO, because NATO allies have worked closely with Ukraine for many years, especially since 2014. This has ensured a much higher level of cooperation and interoperability between Ukraine and NATO."
In April, 2008, NATO leaders refused to provide Ukraine and Georgia with membership action plans, but made a political statement that "Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members over time, when they comply with all of the alliance’s criteria."
Stoltenberg called the Ukraine-NATO Council a "political platform," which will make it possible to hold "crisis consultations" and make decisions on deepening the political cooperation.
"The NATO-Ukraine Council will be a council which is formed by the 31 NATO allies - hopefully, soon, 32 allies [in case of Sweden’s accession - TASS] and Ukraine. And we will be together in the Council as equals. We will agree [on] what we call modalities on how often this Council will meet, but I expect that we will agree [on] modalities that that also ensure that individual members of the Council, and that includes also Ukraine, can call a meeting to have what we call crisis consultations," he said.
According to Stoltenberg, the Council will also make decisions after its meetings.
Answering to a question from a reporter as to which guarantees of security can the alliance provide to Ukraine during the summit in Vilnius, Stoltenberg noted that the best guarantee of security is the NATO’s military aid, which must continue even after the conflict is over.