While Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited and featured at the last two NATO summits—2023 in Vilnius and 2024 in Washington—it is now reported that the U.S. wants to keep him out of next month’s annual summit in The Hague. Italy’s ANSA news agency reported yesterday, citing anonymous diplomatic sources, that the U.S. is against Zelenskyy being invited, and that “for now … a NATO-Ukraine Council at the level of leaders is not planned.” They report that “at the moment, a very concise program is expected at the summit, in contrast to what has happened in recent years, to avoid possible friction with Donald Trump.”
Some non-member countries will be able to participate in some of the meetings, but only at the level of foreign and defense ministers. ANSA reported that Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand have already been invited, but not yet Ukraine.
