Stoltenberg: Ukraine Not to Join NATO Summit

On Monday, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Berlin.

The talks focused on the upcoming NATO summit scheduled for July 11-12 in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

The summit will focus largely on Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that they expect a signal of willingness to accept Ukraine later as a member of the coalition. However, NATO countries did not agree to an official invitation for Ukraine to join.

In Berlin, Stoltenberg confirmed that the NATO summit would not result in a formal invitation for Ukraine to join the alliance.

"At the Vilnius summit and in the preparations for the summit, we are not discussing issuing a formal invitation," he told reporters after meeting Scholz. But he added that the leaders would talk about how to bring Ukraine closer to NATO.

At the same time, Stoltenberg warned against accepting a frozen conflict in Ukraine in return for ending the war.

"We all want this war to end, but a just peace cannot mean freezing the conflict and accepting a deal dictated by Russia," he said.

Meanwhile, Scholz said Germany is prepared for the possibility that the war in Ukraine could still last for a while. "We are preparing for that and adjusting our policies based on that," he said, adding that Germany would continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary."