NATO says Russia cannot block Ukraine's membership

"All member states agreed that NATO's doors remain open. Ukraine will become a member of the alliance and Russia will not have a veto," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

The statement was made by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg when he was in the Slovakian capital Bratislava for talks with leaders of the group of nine Central and Eastern European countries on NATO's eastern flank, also known as the Bucharest Nine (B9).

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. (Photo: Reuters)

The talks in Bratislava come ahead of next month's NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where Mr Stoltenberg said "very important" decisions would be made.

"We will step up our support for Ukraine with a multi-year package to help the country transition its Soviet-era weapons to NATO standards and bring Ukraine closer to NATO ," Stoltenberg said.

According to Mr. Stoltenberg, NATO countries will make a stronger commitment " to increase defense investment, with a minimum of 2% of GDP" .

According to NATO Secretary General, the alliance is working to " welcome Sweden as a full member of NATO soon".

Sweden and Finland applied to join the military alliance after Russia launched a military campaign in Ukraine. Finland officially joined NATO in April.

Last September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine had submitted an accelerated application for NATO membership. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was closely monitoring the situation and pointed to Kiev's NATO ambitions as one of the reasons Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine.

Kong Anh (Source: AFP)

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Source: https://vtc.vn/nato-tuyen-bo-nga-khong-the-chan-tu-cach-thanh-vien-cua-ukraine-ar797935.html