NATO leaders jointly affirm "Ukraine's future is in NATO" and its path is "irreversible"

NATO leaders jointly affirmed Wednesday that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO” and its path is “irreversible,” as they pledged long-term support to Kyiv.

The leaders did not provide a specific timeline for Ukraine to join the defensive alliance. Instead, they said they would “be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the when the allies agree and conditions are met.  

“We welcome the concrete progress Ukraine has made since the Vilnius Summit on its required democratic, economic, and security reforms,” the leaders said in the Washington Summit Declaration, released Wednesday after a meeting of NATO’s North Atlantic Council Wednesday.

The description of Ukraine’s path as “irreversible” comes after months of diplomatic negotiations in the lead up to the Washington Summit and was a point of contention among the allies. Prior to the release of the declaration, some diplomats had argued that it was not enough to just describe the path as “irreversible,” but that there must be strong support undergirding that description.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington for the summit and has been participating in meetings.