Zbigniew Rau made the remark at a news conference in Norway on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Poland’s top diplomat spoke after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo, according to officials.
The get-together in the Norwegian capital focused on additional security guarantees for Ukraine and NATO’s preparations for its July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, according to the Polish foreign ministry.
Rau told reporters afterwards that the three-hour talks "centred around Ukraine’s perspective for joining the trans-Atlantic community.”
NATO’s eastern flank allies seek timetable for Ukraine
He said that some NATO allies argued for “a return to the position adopted at the 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania” where the alliance “declared that Ukraine’s future is in NATO, without specifying a date or a roadmap for Kyiv’s accession.”
The Polish foreign minister added that other NATO members, notably “the eastern-flank countries,” advocated for giving Ukraine “a timetable for joining NATO and a list of requirements that must be met on the road to the alliance.”
‘Ukraine’s future is in NATO’
Rau told reporters: “For all these differences, one thing is obvious. All the allies realise that Ukraine’s future is in NATO, simply because Ukraine is part of the Western security architecture.”
He added that all NATO allies “share the view that the process of bringing Ukraine closer to the alliance must be formalized,” and that this position would be “confirmed at NATO’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12.”
Poland’s top diplomat stated: “Everyone agreed that we must form a NATO-Ukraine council. This council is very likely to hold its first meeting at the Vilnius summit.”
He added: “NATO allies will in all likelihood also agree to offer Ukraine a Comprehensive Assistance Programme (CAP), committing to support Ukraine’s war effort materially and financially in a systematic way.”
Reinforcing NATO’s eastern flank
Rau revealed that NATO foreign ministers "discussed the radical need to boost the alliance’s eastern flank with more weapons.”
He told reporters: “This was agreed at the 2022 summit in Madrid. The process started then and there is a long way to go yet. And so our concern at the moment is to strengthen the eastern flank with more weapons,” amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, the PAP news agency reported.
During the Oslo meeting, Rau stated that the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius should be "a demonstration of the alliance's strength and its full readiness to defend each member state," according to officials.
Friday is day 464 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, niezalezna.pl