NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said russia has no veto power over Ukraine's future membership in the alliance. He was commenting on the so-called US peace agreement that Washington handed over to Kyiv, which included a corresponding restriction.
As Politico reports, Rutte effectively rejected a proposal by Moscow and the US for an agreement that would prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.
In an interview with El País and the German RND, he stressed: "russia has neither a vote nor a veto on the issue of NATO membership."
Rutte also recalled that the Washington Treaty, the foundation of the Alliance, "allows any country in the Euro-Atlantic region to join the alliance."
According to Politico, these statements were made after it became known about the American proposal to end the war with russia, where a separate point was noted that NATO should "never accept Ukraine".
The NATO Secretary General emphasized that even in the event of a peace agreement being signed, the threat from russia would not disappear:
"Russia will remain a long-term threat for a long time," he noted.
Recall that the day before, Rutte suggested that the war in Ukraine could end by the end of the year, but emphasized that russia would remain a serious danger to all of Europe.
For reference: the US peace plan initially consisted of 28 points and contained provisions on the ban on Ukraine's accession to NATO, a reduction in the size of the Ukrainian defense forces, and territorial concessions.
Recall that Ukraine and the US, following the negotiations in Geneva on November 23, prepared an updated and revised framework document for peace.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Heorhii Tykhyi, reported that during the negotiations, the American and Ukrainian delegations discussed the peace plan "point by point", the most sensitive of which will be raised at the level of the presidents of Ukraine and the United States.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Trump said that he had sent his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow to agree on a "peace plan" to end the war in Ukraine. At the same time, US Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll will travel to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Vice President JD Vance called the media report about internal disagreements in President Donald Trump's team regarding the settlement of the russian-Ukrainian war, which also mentioned pressure from US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll on Ukraine with statements about the threat of imminent defeat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to accept a peace agreement, fake.
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