• The European Union has opened a new chapter in accession talks with Ukraine, focusing on external relations, trade policy, and foreign, security, and defense policy.
• Germany's Minister of State for Europe emphasized the importance of building on current momentum and supporting a gradual integration process, including the proposal for an "associated membership" for Ukraine.
• Ukrainian President Zelensky has expressed the need for Ukraine's place in the EU to be full and equal, amid concerns about potentially being stuck in a permanent half-way status.

The European Union on Tuesday opened another chapter in accession talks with Ukraine, marking further progress in Kiev's long path towards membership.

Representatives from the EU and Ukraine launched negotiations in Brussels on the chapter covering external relations, including trade policy as well as foreign, security and defence policy, the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the accession conference, Germany's Minister of State for Europe Gunther Krichbaum said it was important to build on the current momentum.

Krichbaum said the German government continued to support a gradual integration process, including an intermediate form of "associated membership" proposed by Chancellor Friedrich Merz in May.

Under such an arrangement, Ukraine could be granted observer status in EU institutions, he noted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has called for a fast-track path to membership, reacted coolly to Merz amid fears in Kiev that Ukraine would be stuck in a permanent half-way status. "Ukraine's place in the European Union must also be complete - full and equal," he wrote on X at the time.

The EU accession process is designed to ensure candidate countries meet all requirements for membership. It is divided into 35 negotiating chapters, 33 of which are grouped into six thematic clusters. Ukraine is not expected to complete the negotiations before the next decade.

Talks on the first negotiating cluster with Ukraine began in mid-June. The opening of a second cluster is seen as an important signal that the country's reform efforts are paying off after a two-year delay caused by a Hungarian veto.