Rutte: Security guarantees, not NATO membership, at heart of Ukraine discussions

Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte stated on August 18 that while Ukraine’s accession to the alliance is not currently under consideration, discussions are underway regarding the provision of security guarantees comparable to NATO’s Article 5 protections for the country, which has been under Russian invasion since February 2022.

“The situation is this – the United States and several other nations have expressed opposition to Ukraine’s Nato membership. The official Nato position is that Ukraine has an irreversible path into the alliance,” Rutte said during an interview on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle.

“But what we are discussing here is not Nato membership. What we are discussing here is Article 5-type security guarantees for Ukraine, and the precise nature of those guarantees is now the subject of more detailed discussions,” he continued.

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty enshrines the principle of collective defence: an attack on one member is deemed an attack on all 32 member states. Since Ukraine is not a Nato member, Article 5 does not apply to it. Nonetheless, Rutte and other alliance leaders are considering a parallel arrangement to provide Ukraine with robust protection and to deter further Russian aggression—while avoiding the granting of full membership, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has categorically rejected.

Following his August 15 summit with Putin in Alaska, US President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as NATO and European leaders, at the White House on August 18.

Rutte confirmed to Fox News that the White House discussions centred on security guarantees for Ukraine, emphasising that the issue of deploying NATO troops on the ground had not been raised.

Trump characterised the August 18 talks as “very good,” adding that he had already spoken with Putin to initiate preparations for a bilateral meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, to be followed by a trilateral summit that would include Trump himself.

By Tamilla Hasanova