NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told Newsmax on Wednesday that Ukraine’s path to membership in the military alliance still is "irreversible."
Rutte spoke to Newsmax correspondent Shelby Wilder in an exclusive interview on "American Agenda" following the conclusion of NATO’s annual summit at The Hague. NATO released a statement following the summit that did not mention Ukraine’s path to membership, something that had been mentioned in previous statements during the Biden administration.
"Well, the irreversible path into NATO for Ukraine is still on the table, is still there," Rutte said.
"The statement today is a one-pager, basically updating what we decided previously on … the financial support for Ukraine, of course, the spending of NATO itself, and defense industrial production. So, in that sense things have not changed.
"But of course, also in the past we had allies basically saying there is this irreversible path, but we are against it. Hungary, Slovakia, the U.S., also the previous administration. So, in a sense there's nothing new there."
Ukraine was put on a path for NATO membership following the 2008 summit in Bucharest.
NATO describes Ukraine on its website as a partner country that cooperates closely with the alliance but it is not covered by the security guarantee under Article 5 of the NATO charter, which states if one NATO member is attacked, it is considered an attack on the entire alliance.
Russia has been emphatically opposed to Ukraine joining NATO, and Trump said in February during the first Cabinet meeting of his second term that "you can forget about it," suggesting that NATO membership talks regarding Ukraine were a key reason for Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Brussels in February that the U.S. "does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome" of a peace deal with Russia.
Trump on Wednesday met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the summit.
"President Trump was the one who broke the deadlock with Putin," Rutte said.
"So, he started the debate directly with Putin, and I always thought this was crucial when he came in office in January. So, I commend him for that.
"I know that he is very much committed to ending this war. He finds it terrible that it is still ongoing.
"He had a good meeting today with President Zelenskyy here in this building. I spoke with the president of Ukraine after his meeting with President Trump, and it went very well."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.