NATO leaders have pledged to provide Ukraine with at least $43 billion in military aid over the next year to bolster its defenses against Russia and have formally declared that kyiv is on an “irreversible path” toward membership in the Western military alliance.
The commitments, included in a final communiqué following a NATO summit in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, came as alliance members also announced individual and joint measures to boost the security of Ukraine and Europe.
Among them, the United States, the Netherlands and Denmark announced that the first NATO-provided F-16 fighter jets will be in the hands of Ukrainian military pilots this summer. The United States also said it will deploy longer-range missiles to Germany in 2026, a major step aimed at countering what allies say is Russia’s growing threat to Europe.
The move will give Germany the most powerful US weapons ever deployed on the European continent since the Cold War. These weapons would have been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987, but which collapsed in 2019.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media platform X his appreciation for NATO’s efforts to strengthen its air force, saying the new fighter jets “bring a just and lasting peace closer, proving that terrorism must fail.”
«Ukraine's future lies in NATO»
Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said NATO has committed to most of what Zelenskyy has been asking for, noting that in addition to the F-16s, the alliance has promised to provide Ukraine with dozens of air defense systems.
“In particular, the United States has agreed to provide Ukraine with four Patriot missile systems, while other members will be responsible for the maintenance of these systems. So the Ukrainian president has received most of what he asked for, except for one very important thing: NATO membership,” Hanna said.
In its statement, the alliance, which states that “Ukraine’s future lies in NATO,” promises to continue supporting Kiev “on its irreversible path toward full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership,” but the invitation will come “when the allies agree and the conditions are met,” it adds.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that Ukraine would not join the alliance immediately, but insisted that this must happen after the war is over to ensure that Russia never attacks Kiev again.
Regarding NATO's overall assistance, he said: “We are not doing this because we want to prolong a war, but because we want to end it as soon as possible.”
The United States and other countries have opposed Ukraine's accession during the conflict with Russia to avoid an escalation of tensions that could lead to a larger war. They have also stressed that Ukraine must take significant steps to address corruption as well as other systemic reforms.
The NATO statement also reinforced previous language on China, calling it a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and saying Beijing continues to pose systemic challenges to Euro-Atlantic security.
Stoltenberg told reporters it was the first time the 32 allies had jointly called China a key enabler of Russia’s war and called it an important message. He said NATO was not an organization that imposes sanctions, but added: “In the end, it will be individual allies who make decisions, but I think the message we sent from NATO at this summit is very clear.”
Anxiety about Trump
The NATO chief also made an impassioned defense of the military alliance itself on Wednesday when asked by reporters about the possibility that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a NATO critic, could withdraw U.S. support for the alliance if he wins the November election. The questions come amid heightened European anxiety about the staying power of 81-year-old President Joe Biden after he failed in a debate on June 27.
Stoltenberg, without mentioning Trump, said that US criticism of the alliance “is not about NATO, but about NATO allies not investing enough in NATO. And that has changed.”
While Trump renewed his threat not to defend any NATO member from a Russian attack if its military spending does not meet the alliance's goal of at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), the number of allies meeting this target since 2021 has risen from six to 23.
“The United States has been understood,” Stoltenberg said. “The allies have acted.”
Meanwhile, Trump was asked several times on Fox News Radio if he wants the US to leave NATO. He replied: “No, I want them to pay their bills.”
Meanwhile, Biden highlighted the importance of NATO as he hosted the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s formal decision-making body, at a Washington, D.C., convention center, noting that since he took office, not only has military spending increased, but the number of battle groups has doubled on NATO’s eastern flank.
“We can and will defend every inch of NATO territory, and we will do it together,” the US leader said.
The summit of the leaders of the 32 NATO countries (plus Pacific partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, as well as Ukraine) is expected to be one of Biden’s last appearances at an international forum before the US election. And with the election less than four months away, Biden’s political troubles have loomed over the meeting.
NATO leaders “see that Joe Biden is probably not the leader they encountered one, two, three years ago, and they are concerned about that because [he has brought] “NATO is back at the center of American national security policy,” said former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley.
“And they also recognize that while these pronouncements are valuable, important and vital to Ukraine’s future, they potentially have… an eight-month shelf life, given Donald Trump’s fairly established view of being skeptical of all alliances and NATO in particular.”
Still, promises of aid are vital in the short term, Crowley said.
“One way or another, Ukraine has to be supported, it has to be rebuilt and its sovereignty has to be protected,” he said. And one of the ways is “to strengthen the Ukrainian position before a necessary negotiation, because I think Trump’s instinct will be to go to negotiations and try to get the best deal available, whenever he wants to do that.”
