Stoltenberg: Ukraine could join NATO without full de-occupation

Ukraine could become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance even without fully reclaiming its occupied territories, former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Stoltenberg suggested that ways could be found to apply NATO's Article 5 on collective security to Ukraine if it joins the alliance while still having occupied territories.

"It is always very dangerous to compare because no parallels are 100 per cent correct, but the United States has security guarantees to Japan. But they don't cover the Kuril [Islands], which Japan regards as Japanese territory, controlled by Russia," he said.

Stoltenberg also pointed to the example of West Germany, which "regarded East Germany as part of the bigger Germany".

"They didn't have an embassy in East Berlin. But NATO was of course only protecting West Germany," he noted.

"When there is a will, there are ways to find the solution. But you need a line which defines where Article 5 is invoked, and Ukraine has to control all the territory until that border," the former NATO head said.