Why the NATO summit promises to be a success for Ukraine: main takeaways from the ambassador's interview
In less than a week, the NATO summit is set to be held in Ankara.
Once again, the Alliance’s main event will also be highly significant for Ukraine. The clearest indication of this is that all three of the summit’s priorities concern Ukraine, either directly or indirectly.
Read more about the results Kyiv hopes to achieve and whether the dispute with Poland is having any negative impact in the interview with Alona Hetmanchuk, Ukraine’s Head of Mission to NATO.
Some of Ukraine’s expectations for the summit have been met even before it begins.
One of Kyiv’s goals was for Ukraine to become one of the summit’s top three priorities and that has happened. Among the three main priorities defined by the North Atlantic Council is support for Ukraine.
The first priority of the summit is how member states are fulfilling their commitments on defence spending. This refers to the historic decision made at the Hague summit to increase defence expenditure to 5% of GDP.
The second priority is boosting defence production.
The third priority is supporting Ukraine.
Moreover, Ukraine is, in one way or another, embedded in the other two priorities as well.
Indirectly, Donald Trump has pushed all NATO allies to provide greater support to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The only major event taking place alongside the leaders’ meeting will be the Defence Industry Forum. It is expected to be the largest such forum in NATO’s history, bringing together hundreds of companies from all Alliance member states, partner countries, and Ukraine.
A large number of agreements are expected to be signed there.
In this area, Ukraine is considered a success story.
Ukraine will be represented in Ankara at least by the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. A meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council (NUC) will also take place at the level of foreign ministers.
We are doing everything possible to ensure that Ukraine’s future NATO membership is seen as indispensable and truly irreversible.
We see numerous confirmations of this, including public statements by the Secretary General that all previous Alliance decisions affirming the irreversibility of Ukraine’s path toward NATO membership remain in force. More and more countries also understand that Ukraine’s membership is in NATO’s own interest no less than in Ukraine’s. This is becoming increasingly evident. Even countries that were previously only "passive supporters" of membership are now taking a more active stance.
I would also like to share some good news: at the last meeting of NATO defence ministers two weeks ago, the Ukraine-NATO Interoperability Report was approved.
This is the first comprehensive assessment of where Ukraine stands in relation to the 74 initial interoperability requirements agreed between Ukraine and NATO.
For the first time, the Alliance assessed Ukraine not as a partner country but using the same methodology applied to NATO member states.
Today, NATO is helping Ukraine more than it publicly says and more than most Ukrainians realise.
One of our key expectations for the NATO summit in Ankara is that allies will make additional contributions to NATO’s PURL programme for purchasing US-made weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as, speaking more cautiously, that other decisions will be made regarding the provision of anti-ballistic capabilities.
Since the launch of the PURL programme, partner countries have pledged approximately $6.3 billion.
Whereas at the end of last year around 75% of interceptor missiles for Patriot systems were being supplied through PURL, that figure has now risen to 90–92%.
We are currently working to ensure that partners transfer their contributions to NATO more quickly so that Ukraine can receive the required weapons as soon as possible.