Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has missed his chance to have a much-anticipated meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Lithuania.
During the frantic final moments of the summit, overnight Thursday, NZ Time, Hipkins’ scheduled meeting with Zelenskyy was delayed as the Ukrainian leader met with US President Joe Biden.
Needing to make a flight out of the Lithuania capital, Vilnius, Hipkins was unable to wait. He came across Zelenskyy in the corridors of the summit venue, and the pair had a brief exchange.
“Thanks again [inaudible] but I already have dialogue with you and thanks to your [inaudible] your society for supporting Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said, in an apparent reference to a prior phone call the pair had.
According to a video provided by his office, Hipkins said: “We're absolutely behind you. We see it not just as an attack on Ukraine but an attack on an entire system of value and rules."
“Thanks New Zealand," Zelenskyy responded. “Thanks and good luck.”
Before climbing into a motorcade headed for the airport, Hipkins told reporters the brief meeting was a chance to restate New Zealand’s support for Ukraine.
Hipkins had a package of further support for Ukraine ready for a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy. In an announcement after the exhange, he said the Government would provide $1.2m for the United Nations de-mining programme in Ukraine, $500,000 for the International Atomic Energy Agency to help maintain safety at nuclear facilities, and $3m for the recovery of reconstruction of Ukraine, that will be allocated after discussions with partner nations.
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Earlier in the afternoon, Zelenskyy held a bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who promised to provide Ukraine a further 30 Bushmaster armoured vehicles.
Leaders of the 31 North American and European nations that make up Nato assembled in Vilnius for a two-day summit this week, also attended by the alliance’s Asia-Pacific partners, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.
In a speech given at a meeting of Nato leaders and the “Asia-Pacific 4” earlier in the day, Hipkins said New Zealand remained committed to working with the military alliance on security threats.
“Threats to our security and resilience are not just regional, they are also global,” he said.
“Geography, therefore, does not determine or constrain our interests and we must have like-minded partners near and far.”
Zelenskyy had been pushing Nato to provide Ukraine a timeline for joining the alliance, but alliance members declined to do this at a meeting the day prior. However, Nato countries agreed to a package of measures that would advance Ukraine’s aspiration to join.
Biden had said Ukraine should not join Nato – therefore receiving its security guarantee that an attack against one is an attack against all – while it continues to fight off a Russian invasion.
“We can see some specific points making us closer to Nato,” Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.
“We understand that someone is afraid of talking about our membership now, because nobody is willing to have a world war and which is logical, understandable.”
