NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met this Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders, including those of Germany, France and Italy, to discuss possible measures to agree on a common position to end the war.
Meeting ahead of tomorrow’s EU summit
Rutte, in a no-questions-asked appearance alongside Zelensky before meeting in Brussels, said that “one of the priorities on the agenda is to make sure that the president (Zelensky), his team and Ukraine are in the best possible position when one day they decide.” start peace talks.”
Hours before, on his social networks, the Ukrainian president wrote on his social networks: “Europe needs a strong position, united to guarantee lasting peace.
This meeting takes place the day before Zelensky participates in an EU summit. Afterwards, they will join in a work dinner the presidents of the European Council, António Costa, and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen,
Rutte insists that NATO does everything possible
Rutte stressed the need to “do everything possible now to make sure that, when it comes to air defense and other weapons systems, we provide everything we can.”
Specifically, the former Dutch Prime Minister referred to the 19 air defense systems that kyiv has requested to protect the country’s critical energy infrastructure, which is constantly under attack by Russia.
Also, the president of NATO has clarified that they will help the Ukrainian economy now and “when peace comes one day (…), after a future peace agreement”.
For his part, Zelensky believes that today’s meeting and the meetings he will hold tomorrow at the European Council mean a “very good opportunity to talk about security guarantees for Ukraine”.
This is not the time to argue
The Ukrainian leader considers it “very important” that Ukraine’s partners maintain a joint and undivided position in Europe. In fact, Mark Rutte himself has insisted that now is not the time to argue: “If now we start arguing among ourselves what a peace agreement could be like, We make it very easy for the Russians, because they sit there in their reclining chairs, listening to our discussions, smoking a good cigar while watching these images on television,” he said.
A meeting in which Sánchez will not be
Although NATO has not made public the list of attendees, the German Chancellor, Olf Scholz, is expected to attend; the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda and the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen.
The one who will not be there will be the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, since It is a small format meeting in which Spain does not usually participate, according to government sources. Although the meeting framework is flexible and in addition to the European G7 countries, Denmark and Poland have joined.
