ROME, May 14. /TASS/. The United States does not want Vladimir Zelensky invited to this year’s NATO summit, breaking from the tradition of recent years, ANSA news agency reported from an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Antalya quoting a diplomatic source.
According to ANSA, only Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand have received invitations among non-alliance members for the June 24-25 summit, which will be held at the Hague.
Organizational issues may be discussed at the current informal meeting in Turkey. Currently, the program of the June event is extremely tight. According to the agency's source, a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council is not even scheduled at the moment. In order not to completely exclude Kiev, organizing an event at the level of foreign and defense ministers is being considered, the ANSA source said.
The wording about the "irreversible path" to the country's membership in NATO appeared in the final statement of the alliance's summit on Ukraine in 2024. The NATO members did not hide the fact that it was a kind of compensation to Ukraine for the fact that the summit statement did not contain any specifics about joining the alliance. After President Donald Trump came to power in the United States in January 2025, he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that Ukraine's accession to the alliance was not on the table. As an alternative to joining, it is proposed, in particular by Italy, to extend article 5 of the alliance on collective defense to Ukraine.