Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned regional allies Monday that a NATO target to boost defence spending by 2032 would come “too late”, as countries arm in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She was speaking at a summit in Vilnius, attended by Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
The NATO summit in Vilnius on 2 June brought together the alliance’s eastern flank members – the Bucharest Nine –along with Nordic countries.
The one-day summit focused on strengthening security and defense amid ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine. The meeting comes ahead of the full NATO summit later this month in The Hague.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who attended the Vilnius summit, reiterated his demand to be invited to the June NATO summit, warning that excluding Ukraine would be “a victory for Putin, not over Ukraine, but over NATO.”
The NATO summit coincided with the second round of direct peace talks between representatives from Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, Turkey.
“The key to lasting peace is clear, the aggressor must not receive any reward for war. Putin must get nothing that would justify his aggression,” Zelensky told a press conference in Vilnius.
No breakthrough
Ukraine wants concrete Western-backed security guarantees – like NATO protections or troops on the ground – that have been ruled out by Russia.
Moscow has made sweeping demands such as calling for Ukraine to cede territory it still controls, a ban on Kyiv joining NATO, limiting Ukraine’s military and ending Western military support.
‘Unpredictable threats’
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