TBD: We will tell you when we are ready to let you in. That’s the weak message NATO gave Ukraine Tuesday, with the Western alliance widely seen as failing to come up with a more concrete timeline on Kyiv’s hard-fought membership process. Wishy–washy? “We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met,” the leaders wrote in a carefully crafted summit communiqué that is the outcome of intensive negotiations among the alliance’s 31 members. A liberal reading is that this is an invitation for Ukraine to join once the war is over. “The beauty of the word ‘conditions’ is precisely its vagueness,” according to Gérard Araud, former French ambassador to the U.S. “It will allow the allies, especially the most prudent ones, to decide what, when and how they want.” But what are those “conditions”? Nobody has a quantifiable clue. NATO chief seeks to reassure: In a joint press conference on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “We will issue an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO when allies agree that conditions are met. This is a strong, united message from allies on your path to NATO membership. We must ensure when this war ends there are credible arrangements in place for Ukraine’s security so that history does not repeat itself.” That comes after some strong expressions of disappointment from Zelenskyy. On Tuesday he tweeted: “Today I embarked on a trip here with faith in decisions, with faith in partners, with faith in a strong NATO. In a NATO that does not hesitate, does not waste time and does not look back at any aggressor ... And is that too much to expect?” He softened his tone on Wednesday, saying in a tweet: "We now have an appropriate package of guarantees," adding "We understand that Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO while the war is ongoing. But then it will be our common strength when Ukraine joins the Alliance." POLITICO's Lili Bayer has more. But there are poor reviews from outside the room: “The mood across the country [Ukraine] was one of frustration … This vague wording represented modest progress but fell far short of Ukrainian expectations,” writes Peter Dickinson of the Atlantic Council … “I reckon Vilnius 2023 might go down as an egregious case of multilateral dithering,” tweets Fabrizio Tassinari of the European University Institute. BIDEN EVENING NO-SHOW: U.S. President Joe Biden skipped the dinner on Tuesday hosted by his Lithuanian counterpart for the visiting leaders. GOOD COP, BAD COP: Remember when French President Emmanuel Macron was seen as too soft on Russia? Well, that’s old news. My colleague Laura Kayali writes in to explain why… For the French president, the NATO meeting is the first major international summit on security and defense since the Bratislava summit in late May. At that time, Macron was uncompromising in his criticism of Moscow, and extended an olive branch to Central and Eastern European countries — who had previously considered his stance toward Vladimir Putin too conciliatory. It’s all relative: While the French president now defends the idea of Ukraine's rapid accession to NATO, the United States and Germany have, in recent days, been more cautious. In Le Figaro, former NATO Assistant Secretary-General Camille Grand explained that "by taking over in this way [ Macron] is also allowing France to play a leading role in Vilnius. The Americans and Germans will say no to Ukraine's immediate entry into NATO, and France will be for compromise.” SO DID UKRAINE GET ANYTHING OUT OF THE SUMMIT? F-16 training. After months of negotiations, a coalition of 11 countries finally came round to a pledge to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the American fighter jets. “This coalition is working on the training. That is the step we are taking today,” Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren told reporters. “The next step would be the actual capability itself … When we have all these countries joining in this coalition, that shows our commitment and that shows we are working in a certain direction.” NUMBER GAMES: Canada plans to more than double the size of its contribution to a NATO mission in Latvia by adding 1,200 military personnel to its contingent there, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday, according to CBC. But but but: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, shied away from promising to station British troops in Estonia on a permanent basis — despite pressure to do so from the U.K.’s Baltic partners. A decision by Germany to station 4,000 of its troops in Lithuania in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has added to pressure on the U.K. to make a similar commitment. The U.K. already leads a NATO battlegroup in Estonia and deploys troops there on rotating tours, POLITICO’s Cristina Gallardo says. EU MULLS SECURITY GUARANTEES: The EU wants to commit itself to defending Ukraine for the long haul. According to a draft plan obtained by POLITICO’s Jacopo Barigazzi, the European External Action Service is considering everything from ensuring a “sustained” flow of weapons to Kyiv, to continuing military education and training, to sharing intelligence and helping connect Ukrainian and EU defense companies. And down the road, the draft document adds, “Ukraine’s EU membership would be in itself a security commitment.”
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