Ukraine's NATO membership to be discussed at informal meeting in Norway
Foreign ministers from NATO's 31 member states will discuss Ukraine's accession to the organisation at an informal meeting in Oslo on Wednesday and Thursday.
Officials aim to overcome differences over Ukraine's possible accession to the alliance, with some countries calling for Kiev to be given a roadmap at the Vilnius summit in July, Reuters reports.
NATO Secretary General Jeans Stoltenberg, on his first visit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion on 20 April, said Ukraine's rightful place was in the Euro-Atlantic family, but said that this status was impossible to achieve as long as the war unleashed by the Russian Federation continued.
The US and Germany argue that Ukraine's possible accession to the North Atlantic Alliance through a fast-track procedure would bring NATO closer to entering an active war with Russia.
However, both Kiev and some of its closest allies in Eastern Europe want NATO to take the first concrete steps to bring Ukraine closer to North Atlantic Alliance membership at the 11-12 July summit in Vilnius.
On 30 September 2022, Ukraine applied for NATO membership.
