NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 122 of 150

Correct — C, both 1 and 2. Both statements report real developments of the months before this September 2016 paper. On the first, NATO's defence ministers met in Brussels in June 2016 and settled a package of assistance for Ukraine, which Allied leaders then consolidated at the Warsaw Summit of 8-9 July 2016 as the Comprehensive Assistance Package; NATO's own account of it describes non-lethal practical support, capacity building to modernise Ukraine's defence and security sector, work on interoperability with NATO forces and tailored capability measures — which is exactly what the statement says. On the second, 2016 saw repeated Israeli announcements of new housing units for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem, and the international response came at the end of that year when the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2334 on 23 December 2016 by fourteen votes to none with the United States abstaining, declaring Israeli settlement activity in the Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem a flagrant violation of international law with no legal validity.

• (a)1 only — It rejects the settlement statement, which is the better-documented of the two. New housing for settlers in East Jerusalem was announced repeatedly through 2016 and was the specific conduct that the Security Council addressed in December of that year.
• (b)2 only — It rejects the NATO statement. Support for Ukraine had been on NATO's agenda continuously since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the June 2016 ministerial and the July 2016 Warsaw Summit are where the assistance package was settled and announced.
• (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Both statements are accurate reports of events in the exam's own news window, so the option that denies both cannot stand. It is also the least likely shape of answer in a two-statement current-affairs item, where the setter is usually testing whether you followed the news rather than whether you can spot a fabrication.

NATO's relationship with Ukraine, a partner rather than a member, was reshaped after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. The Comprehensive Assistance Package brought the separate strands of support together under one framework — trust funds, advice, training and equipment that is explicitly non-lethal — aimed at making Ukraine's forces more capable and more compatible with NATO's. Separately, Israeli settlements in territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, have been the subject of repeated Security Council attention, on the ground that transferring an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory is barred by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

This is a September 2016 paper, so read both statements as reports of that moment rather than as descriptions of today, and be aware how far both stories have since travelled. NATO's assistance to Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022 is on a completely different scale from the 2016 package: the Comprehensive Assistance Package was strengthened into a multi-year programme endorsed at the Vilnius Summit in 2023, and a NATO-Ukraine Council was created the same year. On the second statement, Resolution 2334 in December 2016 did not stop settlement expansion, and the diplomatic position around Jerusalem shifted further when the United States recognised it as Israel's capital in 2017 and moved its embassy there in 2018. Neither change affects the answer to this 2016 item, but a student revising from it should not carry the 2016 picture forward as current.

• NATO's Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine was settled in the June 2016 defence ministers' round and consolidated by leaders at the Warsaw Summit of 8-9 July 2016.
• The package covers non-lethal support, capacity building, interoperability and tailored capability measures; Ukraine was a NATO partner, not a member.
• UN Security Council Resolution 2334 of 23 December 2016 was adopted 14-0 with the United States abstaining and called Israeli settlement activity in occupied territory including East Jerusalem a flagrant violation of international law.
• NATO's support to Ukraine was greatly expanded after February 2022, with a multi-year assistance programme and the NATO-Ukraine Council both dating from 2023.

• Assuming that a two-statement current-affairs item must contain one falsehood; often both statements are true reports.
• Answering from today's news rather than from the news of the exam year — both of these stories have moved a long way since 2016.
• Confusing NATO's partner relationship with Ukraine in 2016 with membership, which Ukraine did not and does not hold.

The GAT's international-affairs items are drawn from the six to nine months before the paper, and are usually set as two short statements to be marked true or false, so a habit of dating every claim is worth more than a stock of headlines.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The NATO summit at which the Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine was consolidated in 2016 was held at

  • (a)Brussels
  • (b)Warsaw
  • (c)Lisbon
  • (d)Vilnius

  Answer(b) Warsaw — the summit of 8-9 July 2016; Brussels is NATO's headquarters, and Vilnius hosted the 2023 summit.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  UN Security Council Resolution 2334 of December 2016 dealt with

  • (a)the Iranian nuclear programme
  • (b)Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem
  • (c)sanctions on North Korea
  • (d)the conflict in Yemen

  Answer(b) Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem — adopted 14-0 with the United States abstaining.