(Bloomberg) -- German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that NATO membership for Ukraine could be part of a potential peace deal with Russia, which could also include conceding some occupied Ukrainian territory.
“There are different elements of a peace standing in the room: political and material security guarantees, NATO membership, an international presence for the preservation of a cease-fire, troop withdrawal, territory questions, reconstruction, the handling of sanctions,” Baerbock said Tuesday in Brussels. “Ukraine decides on its own with which goals it will go to the negotiating table.”
Baerbock’s remarks, ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, come as there are renewed conversations in European capitals about possible negotiation scenarios for ending the fighting in Ukraine, including about different types of security guarantees, according to a senior NATO diplomat.
NATO chief Mark Rutte, however, said that ministers this week would focus mostly on speeding military aid to Kyiv rather than delving into a possible peace process.
“Ukraine doesn’t need more ideas on what a peace process could look like,” he told reporters, saying that he wants to “make sure Ukraine has what it needs to get to a position of strength when those peace talks start — when the Ukrainian government has decided they’re ready to do so.”
The issue of beginning NATO membership talks for Ukraine remains divisive, even inside Germany, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz so far opposed to opening an accession process.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy recently said that he might be able to accept a cease-fire with Russia that left parts of his country occupied in return for NATO security guarantees.
“If we want to stop the hot stage of war, we should take under NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” he told Sky News last week.
Baerbock arrived in Brussels directly from a two-day visit in Beijing, where she met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Germany’s top diplomat, who is a member of the Green party, criticized China for allegedly providing drones to Russia for use against Ukraine. She urged China to fulfill its responsibility as a permanent member of the UN security council and pressure Russia to accept a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
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