NATO summit declaration says "Ukraine's future is in NATO"

VILNIUS, July 11 (Reuters) - NATO leaders have agreed at a summit in Vilnius that Ukraine's future lies within the alliance but stopped short of handing Kyiv the invitation or timetable for accession that the country has been seeking.
At the same time, NATO dropped the requirement for Ukraine to fulfil a so-called Membership Action Plan (MAP), effectively removing a hurdle on Kyiv's way into the alliance.
"Ukraine's future is in NATO," a declaration agreed by the leaders on Tuesday said, adding Kyiv's Euro-Atlantic integration had moved beyond the need for a Membership Action Plan.
Participants of the NATO Summit take their positions to pose for an official family photo in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11, 2023. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
"We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met," the declaration said.
While leaders did not specify the conditions Ukraine needs to meet, they said the alliance would help Kyiv to make progress on military interoperability as well as on additional democratic and security sector reforms.
(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word from the headline)

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Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Andrew Gray and John Irish, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout

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Andrew Gray is Reuters' European Affairs Editor. Based in Brussels, he covers NATO and the European Union and leads a pan-European team of reporters focused on diplomacy, defence and security. A journalist for almost 30 years, he has previously been based in the UK, Germany, Geneva, the Balkans, West Africa and Washington, where he reported on the Pentagon. He covered the Iraq war in 2003 and contributed a chapter to a Reuters book on the conflict. He has also worked at Politico Europe as a senior editor and podcast host, served as the main editor for a fellowship programme for journalists from the Balkans, and contributed to the BBC's From Our Own Correspondent radio show.