NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has told Donald Trump that the US will face a “die threat” from Vladimir Putin’s allies over a peace deal that is unacceptable for Ukraine.
During an interview with the Financial Times Rutte said that Washinton could face threats from Iran, North Korea and China’s President Xi Jing Ping “might get thoughts about something else in the future if there is not a good deal,” the NATO chief told the President-elect.
The NATO chief met with Trump on 23 November in Florida as there are strong fear the President-elect could get “out” all US assets out of the war to bring the war to a stop which would hand Putin a win for being the aggressor.
Rutte warned Trump against allowing Russia, North Korea and Iranian leaders to be victorious over a “deal which is not good for Ukraine” that would create a “might get thoughts about something else in the future if there is not a good deal.”
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The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Ukraine will refuse all security guarantees that substitutes NATO membership.
The Ministry said in a statement, “Having the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not settle for any alternatives, surrogates, or substitutes for Ukraine‘s full membership in NATO,” the Kyiv Independent reports.
In 1994 under the Budapest Memorandum Ukraine gave up their Soviet-era nuclear weapons in exchange for recognition of their borders and security guarantees by Washington and Russia along with other allies.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said, “the U.S. and Great Britain, which signed the Budapest Memorandum … France and China, which joined it,” and it “all the states participating in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons” in supporting Ukraine to join NATO.
Citing multiple diplomats Reuters reported that NATO members are likely to sidestep Ukraine’s call to join the alliance in the looming NATO meeting today and on Wednesday.
An unnamed senior NATO diplomat told Reuters, “It will take weeks and months to get consensus.
“I don’t see that happening tomorrow, I would be very surprised.”
In September 2022 Kyiv submitted an application to join the alliance, in July 2024 NATO confirmed Ukraine’s “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on 29 November, “I urge you to endorse the decision to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance as one of the outcomes of the NATO Foreign Ministerial Meeting on Dec. 3-4.”
