According to President Alexander Stubb, Finland's goal is to ensure that the decisions to be made at the NATO summit next week become a "bridge" to Ukraine's membership in NATO. This was reported by UNN with reference to Yle.
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"Russia's message is clear: Ukraine is on the path to NATO membership," Stubb said.
However, according to him, it is difficult to estimate the timing of Ukraine's accession to NATO at this stage. Stubb believes that by that time, peace or at least a ceasefire will have been reached between Ukraine and Russia, and Ukraine will have received reliable bilateral security guarantees, for example, from the United States.
Next week, the President of Finland will attend the NATO Summit in Washington, DC. The main topics of the meeting will be strengthening NATO's deterrence and defense, support for Ukraine, closer relations between Ukraine and NATO, and cooperation with NATO partners.
According to Stubb, the meeting will also discuss defense spending. The defense budget of NATO member states should be at least 2% of national GDP.
As the president pointed out, 23 of the 32 member states have already achieved this goal. According to Stubb, this is to be welcomed, but at the same time, "we have to prepare to increase the ambition of the goals.