Before US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s planned talks on the future of Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned of a potentially fragile successor to the Minsk agreements broken by Russia.
“We all know that we need to put Ukraine in the best negotiating position now and we need a lasting and sustainable peace, not Minsk 3.0” Rutte said on Thursday. “We must ensure that we are not attacked by Russia again.” Putin had already questioned the results of the Minsk agreements in 2015/2016.
According to Rutte, the planned talks need not necessarily end in Ukraine’s NATO membership. The outcome of the security talks must be that Putin never attacks Ukraine again. “We can of course imagine five or ten different security guarantee options for Ukraine, but we have never promised Ukraine that NATO membership would be part of the peace talks” Rutte said.
One must still do more to ensure that deterrence capabilities are maintained. “We need to get into a war-like mindset” the NATO Secretary General said. “The defense industry has ramped up production capacities, but a lot more can still be done.