NATO’s senior rep to Ukraine: Ukraine to be discussed at Alliance summit in Hague, but I’m not going to forecast discussion contents
At the NATO summit in The Hague in 2025, in addition to the need for the strongest support for Ukraine, issues of defense spending and defense production capabilities of the countries will be raised, said Patrick Turner, NATO’s Senior Representative to Ukraine.
“I’m not going to second guess what leaders will discuss. I can tell you two things I know that they will be discussing, and these are linked to this question. Evidently, there will be a discussion on Ukraine at the Summit, but I’m not going to forecast exactly the contents of that discussion. The Secretary General has been pursuing two big themes publicly, apart from the need for the strongest possible support for Ukraine now,” Turner said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
According to him, one of the topics will concern the increase in European defense spending.
“It really means much more. Secondly, Allies need to boost their defence production capacities by very large margins. At the moment, as you know, the production capacity in NATO countries is seriously inadequate,” the senior representative said.
He added that those two things are needed to maintain effective defence and deterrence in NATO, but they’re also needed to ensure that “we can continue to support Ukraine into the future.”
“Our absolute intent is to continue to support Ukraine into the future. We want to help Ukraine to end the Russian war. But we certainly don’t want to see what Russia has done in Ukraine happening on NATO territory. And if we don’t bring an end to the war in a way that provides lasting, really assured security for Ukraine, then this is a problem that will recur somewhere else,” Turner stressed.