ANKARA

The NATO secretary general on Saturday called on European countries to make concrete proposals rather than complaining about being excluded from potential talks on Ukraine.

Europe must ensure that Ukraine is in "the best possible position during the peace talks," Mark Rutte told a panel at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

“And to my European friends, I would say, get into the debate, not by complaining that you might yes or not be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals (and) ideas. Ramp up the spending, make sure that the training and the weapons supplies continue, but also come up with concrete ideas; what, for example, could security guarantees look like?” Rutte said.

Importance of NATO

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said, for his part, that NATO “stood the test of time” and is effective because “not one NATO nation has ever been invaded by a nation-state.”

He also expressed regret for the allied countries' policy toward Ukraine in 2014, saying, “We should have integrated our economies with Ukraine to give them hope and have a tripwire so it would not happen again.”

Graham also regretted not building up the Ukrainian military to make it “harder to invade.”

“Because we did not want to deal with provoking Putin. Lessons learned. Do not worry about provoking Putin. Worry about stopping Putin,” the senator stressed.

He urged greater support for the Ukrainian army "to the fullest extent possible," saying, "We would be stupid in the next decade not to create the most lethal Ukrainian army possible as a form of deterrence."

US Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen called on allies to increase military production because NATO’s adversaries, “whether it is Vladimir Putin or President Xi in China or North Korea or Iran,” are monitoring the moves and will “calibrate what they do in response to how strong they think” the allies are.

Ukraine’s NATO membership bid

Shaheen also said Ukraine’s NATO membership debate should not be taken “off the table in negotiations” in order to avoid starting “a negotiation from a point of weakness.”

“We need to make it very clear that somebody is going to defend Ukraine other than Ukraine, and whether that is NATO membership, whether it is some sort of a multilateral force,” she stressed.

Senator Graham added, for his part, that he is “all for Ukraine being in NATO, but it is up to the members of NATO.”

“I am not so sure the market will bear (if) they go into NATO right now,” he noted, but the allies could give the message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that if he ever has “a military incursion into Ukraine again, that will trigger automatic admission into NATO by Ukraine.”

“We should have done that in 2014,” Graham regretted.

Minerals proposal

Senator Graham described the Trump administration's mineral proposal to Ukraine as a "game changer" because US President Donald Trump can now tell his citizens that "Ukraine is not a burden; it is a benefit."

The Trump administration proposed that the US receive a 50% ownership stake in Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for the military and financial aid provided to Kyiv to fight off the Russian war, NBC News reported, citing multiple US officials familiar with the matter.

Graham said the agreement, if it is finalized, would be “a nightmare for Putin.”