Speaking at the annual foreign policy debates in Kultaranta, Finland, on Sunday, Stoltenberg emphasized that NATO’s goal is "to preserve peace" and "not to provoke, but to prevent a conflict."
He said that the military alliance supports Ukraine with the aim to strengthen Kiev’s position at the peace negotiations, which, hopefully, will be held soon.
Stoltenberg emphasized that "peace is possible," but the question is how much one is willing to pay for it, how much territory and sovereignty one is willing to give up.
The NATO secretary general arrived for the Kultaranta Talks, hosted by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, on Sunday. The situation in Ukraine and Finland's NATO membership were discussed.
On Monday, Stoltenberg will travel to Sweden to meet with the country's leadership.
On May 18, Finland and Sweden submitted their NATO membership applications, abandoning decades of neutrality and citing a shift in the security situation in Europe shattered by the Ukrainian crisis. However, Turkey blocked the application review process over Finland’s and Sweden’s long-standing support of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkey has designated as a terrorist organization.
Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, after the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations.
Russia has said that the aim of its special operation is to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine. In response to Russia’s operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow and have been supplying weapons to Ukraine.