During a meeting on December 3-4, NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs will focus on the discussion of further assistance to Ukraine, and not on its membership in the Alliance, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said on Tuesday.

"As you know, Allies agree that the future of Ukraine is in NATO, and during the Washington Summit, we agreed on the irreversible path towards NATO, and before and after the Washington Summit, Allies have been working on building the bridge," he said at a press conference in Brussels.

The Secretary General noted that "the bridge consists, for example, out of the individual bilateral security agreements between Allies and Ukraine, but also the implementation of all decisions being agreed in Washington."

"So, this is happening step by step, what I would think that we have to concentrate, and we will concentrate over these next two days, very much on what is necessary now," he said.

Rutte also emphasized that "what is necessary now is to make sure that military aid will go to Ukraine, because that is now crucial for them to, if they decide to do so, enter into talks with the Russians one day, they will do this from a position of strength."