NATO defense ministers held two days of talks in Brussels to prepare for a leaders' summit next month in Lithuania. On Friday, they announced they are creating a new council with Ukraine. They said they will use July's meeting to hold the council's first session with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

NATO leaders have been weighing Ukraine's prospects for membership. They say they are not yet ready to discuss a formal invitation.

However, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that in the new council, Ukraine will be equal to NATO allies and consult and decide on security issues of mutual concern.

In 1997, NATO created a commission with Ukraine to discuss defense and other issues. Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 prompted them to hold several extraordinary sessions.

Stoltenberg said the new council will be "something different." He added that Ukraine will sit at the table with "the same rights" and that they will "make decisions together."

The defense ministers had also hoped to draw up their first new defense plans since the Cold War. They did agree to increase their capabilities but were unable to decide how much members should increase their defense budgets beyond the current 2 percent of GDP.