Ukraine president Zelenskyy invited to NATO summit in July: Stoltenberg

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday he hoped to see Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at a summit of the alliance’s leaders this summer. “A strong independent Ukraine is vital for the stability of the Euro-Atlantic area, and we look forward to meeting President Zelensky at our Vilnius summit in July,” Stoltenberg said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. The announcement came on the day Russia’s neighbour Finland became NATO’s 31st member. NATO leaders will now turn up the pressure on their awkward allies Hungary and Turkey to lift their block on Sweden joining. Helsinki’s strategic shift – which ended decades of military non-alignment – has doubled the length of the US-led alliance’s land border with Russia and drew an angry warning of “countermeasures” from the Kremlin. Finland’s foreign minister formally sealed Helsinki’s membership by depositing the accession papers before the Finnish flag was raised between those of France and Estonia to the singing of a choir outside NATO’s gleaming Brussels headquarters. “Finland now has the strongest friends and allies in the world,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said. Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, had “wanted to slam NATO’s door shut. Today we show the world that he failed, that aggression and intimidation do not work”. With inputs from AFP Read all the Latest News, Trending News,  Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.