The NATO summit started in Lithuania, which will determine the fate of Ukraine in the Alliance

Today, July 11, a two-day NATO summit will begin in Vilnius, which will determine the prospects for Ukraineʼs membership in the Alliance.

Today is planned:

• 09:05 — opening speech by the Secretary General of the Alliance Jens Stoltenberg;
• all summit participants are expected to arrive by 11:30 a.m.;
• 13:00 — short speeches by Stoltenberg and US President Joe Biden;
• 1:30 p.m. — the official meeting of the summit participants, each head of government and the president will be personally greeted by Stoltenberg and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda;
• 13:55 — a joint photo of the summit participants;
• 14:00 — the start of the summit at the level of heads of government and presidents, in particular Sweden;
• 15:30 — arrival of delegations of NATO partner countries;
• 17:30 — Stoltenbergʼs press conference;
• 18:00 — a meeting of defense ministers of NATO countries;
• 19:00 — dinner at the presidential palace, organized by Nauseda.

The Ukrainian delegation led by President Volodymyr Zelensky will also take part in the NATO summit. The day before, the head of state announced the holding of a series of bilateral negotiations of various levels regarding military aid to Ukraine in Vilnius.

Presidents Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky will meet at the NATO summit in Vilnius, but the next day — July 12.

The day before, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba informed that the NATO allies, after negotiations, decided to remove the MAP from Ukraineʼs path to the Alliance.

Accession of Ukraine to the EU and NATO

On September 16, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada (the Uktainian Parliament) and the European Parliament simultaneously approved the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. It entered into full force on September 1, 2017. The strategic course for Ukraineʼs membership in the European Union and NATO has been enshrined in the Constitution since February 2019.

Four days after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, on February 28, 2022, Ukraine applied to join the European Union under a special procedure. Soon, Georgia and Moldova submitted such applications.

On June 17, the European Commission recommended that Ukraine and Moldova be granted EU candidate status, and also put forward a number of conditions that Ukraine must fulfill before starting negotiations on EU accession.

Already on June 23, EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a summit, where Ukraine and Moldova were granted candidate status.