MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) - NATO is unlikely to incorporate Ukraine in the nearest future or intervene military in its affairs, according to NATO member states' senior officials note.
However, "NATO leaders are expected to approve a package of support for Kiev, setting up trust funds worth around 12 million euros ($15.8 million) to improve Ukraine's military capabilities in areas such as logistics, command and control, and cyber defense," Reuters reports.
The NATO Summit in Wales which started on September, 4, is expected to bring into focus such issues as the relationship between NATO and Russia, the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine and the rising threat of the self-declared Islamic State in the Middle East.
Although British PM David Cameron and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen have once more insisted that Russia poses a "threat" to its neighbors, the media source emphasizes that NATO is likely to give up on significantly increasing its military presence in Eastern Europe. Instead, they "will agree to pre-position equipment and supplies, such as fuel and ammunition" in the region in order to seamlessly organize a NATO offensive if necessary.
According to Reuters, NATO's members have rejected the idea of empowering its military forces in Eastern Europe, because they do not want "to break a 1997 agreement with Russia under which NATO committed not to permanently station significant combat forces in the east." Experts insist that this move has once again shown that NATO's member states don't intend to cut off relations with Russia and do not really consider Moscow a substantial threat to Europe, despite statements made by Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Meanwhile, NATO members have expressed their concerns regarding the growing threat of Islamist extremism. British PM Cameron stressed that ISIS is spreading its "poisonous ideology" and should be "squeezed out of existence," as cited by CNN. However, it seems that NATO's leaders have not yet developed a joint strategy to fight terrorism in the Middle East.
NATO diplomats point out that not all of the alliance's member states are willing to join the US in conducting a military assault on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. However, allies such as France and the UK are apparently willing to involve themselves in such a conflict.
