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LONDON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- It is impossible for NATO to have direct military involvement in the Ukraine crisis unless the eastern European country becomes a member, a British defense expert at a leading think-tank said Friday.
"There is no direct military involvement and it is impossible to imagine direct military involvement by NATO unless Ukraine becomes a member, or the UN Security Council passes a resolution which may lay some ground for military involvement in Ukraine," Igor Sutyagin, research fellow in Russian studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told Xinhua.
The 26th NATO summit in Wales on Sept. 4-5 saw leaders from the 28 nations of the alliance issue a communique covering several areas including a response to the Ukraine crisis.
The communique committed NATO to a continuous military presence in the eastern area with units rotated through the area. It agreed to create a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VHRJTF), a small force capable of responding within a few days.
"The military technical support does not come from NATO but might come from NATO member states," Sutyagin said.
The VHRJTF will be part of NATO's rapid reaction force, which would have its headquarters in an eastern NATO nation, according to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Meanwhile, NATO nations agreed at the two-day summit that they would move towards using 20 percent of military spending to buy hardware or on research and development.
"There has been a determination to reach another important threshold and that is to reach 20 percent of budget spending on hardware," Sutyagin said.
"It is not new for NATO, but it is an internal instruction. Now, it is in the wake of these events (on the NATO area eastern borders) that the importance of these instructions is being raised to the political level and becoming the political obligation of states," he added.
NO MORE MISTAKES IN AFGHANISTAN
Moreover, the summit also saw intense discussions over its new role in Afghanistan as NATO nations's military involvement in the country is drawing a conclusion at the end of this year.
Sutyagin said a firmer agreement on military assistance was stymied by the stand-off within Afghan leaders over the presidency.
"NATO is determined not to repeat previous mistakes and not to lose what has been gained in Afghanistan," Sutyagin said.
"Afghanistan is an important place because if you have an area of stability in this unstable region, it is great for NATO and for the world. That is why NATO is determined to preserve the achievements of the past 14 years," he added.
"One of the reasons Soviet-backed government collapsed in Afghanistan was an end to funding -- NATO is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet Union," he said, adding the funding for defense forces in Afghanistan is "very important." Enditem
