Ukraine's membership in NATO: US demands to postpone the issue - FT

Ukraine’s membership in NATO: US demands to postpone the issue – FT

Between the eastern and western flanks of NATO, there are persistent discussions on the admission of Ukraine to the Alliance.

The United States, Germany and Hungary are opposed to giving Ukraine a “road map” for NATO membership already at the alliance’s July summit. Disagreements within the bloc are reported by the Financial Times .

Poland and the Baltic states want to offer Ukraine closer ties to NATO and clear statements about future membership, unnamed officials involved in the talks told reporters. However, the United States, Germany and Hungary oppose this idea.

The publication notes that earlier, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky delivered an ultimatum: he will take part in the July NATO summit only if Ukraine is presented with a real scheme for membership after the war.

Now between the eastern and western members of NATO there are disputes about how to deal with this situation.

In March, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is said to have submitted to member states a document with “practical and political” proposals for Kyiv. Now there are tough discussions within the Alliance about what can be promised to Ukraine.

“We have several weeks of intense negotiations ahead of us to close these gaps and achieve a political outcome,” said one Western official.

At the same time, all 31 members of the alliance agree that the issue of Ukraine’s accession to NATO is not a matter of a short-term perspective and cannot be seriously discussed while the war is going on.

(C)UNIAN 2023

One comment

Is anyone surprised? I’m not. Still think the better alliance would be Central European (ex Hungary), Eastern European and the Baltic countries. Western Europe doesn’t have the same mission or values as us. I’d also include Great Britain for no other reason for their phenomenal support