British News Agency

According to four NATO diplomats, although a deal remains a moving target, some allies insist they have “red lines” on which they want to be consulted first. These concern Kyiv’s possible membership of the alliance, the deployment of troops and weapons on allied territory, and respect for international law.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told POLITICO in an interview: “At the end of the day, NATO will decide on NATO matters. Right now, we are defining our red lines together with our partners and allies.”

This renewed push comes after European countries were caught off guard late last month by a peace plan prepared under U.S.-Russian mediation, which was widely seen as favoring Moscow. Since then, Europeans have put forward their own counterproposals, but reaching an agreement still appears out of reach.

NATO foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Wednesday, offering the first real opportunity for countries within the alliance to discuss the broad outlines of a peace plan. The summit will take place one day after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for critical talks.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Tuesday: “It is really important that the United States leads these efforts.” However, he told reporters in Brussels that “any issue relating to NATO in an agreement to end the war will, of course, be handled separately with NATO.”

Rutte noted that there is currently “no consensus” among alliance members on Ukraine’s accession to NATO, but said that the alliance’s 1949 founding treaty, which in theory enshrines an open-door policy for new members, “is still valid.”

An earlier draft of the plan had imposed strict conditions on the alliance, requiring it to halt the admission of new members, to pledge not to deploy troops to Ukraine, and to add a clause to its charter permanently blocking Kyiv’s membership.