Defence Secretary asks allies to consider fast-tracking Kyiv’s membership

By Joe Barnes, BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT

29 June 2023 • 9:49pm

Britain has called for Nato to remove a significant hurdle to Ukraine’s membership of the military alliance.

Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said allies should consider not putting Kyiv through the Membership Action Plan (Map) before being allowed to join.

“I think we should absolutely look at skipping the Membership Action Plan,” he said at a news conference with Anita Anand, his Canadian counterpart, in London on Thursday.

“But of course, we have to put some realism in this space that there are 31 members of Nato now and, you know, we have to all move together.”

The Map process is designed to create a timeline to offer prospective members assessments on whether they meet the political, economic and military criteria for Nato membership.

Removing the hurdle could significantly speed up the accession process by moving straight to the ratification stage.

Nato membership requires the go-ahead of the alliance’s countries.

was allowed to join.

Gaps remain in talks between Nato’s 31 members over when Ukraine should be offered membership.

In 2008, at a summit in Bucharest, Nato leaders signed a statement that said Ukraine “will become” a member without any specific timeline.

More recently, Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s secretary-general, said Kyiv’s “rightful place” is within Nato.

Britain and numerous eastern European countries have called for the Map process to be scrapped to accelerate the means of joining the alliance, in a step beyond its previous commitment.

Those countries bordering Russia want to provide a significant political commitment on membership at their gathering next month.

The United States is understood to have called for the hurdle to be removed because it could be seen as a provocation by Moscow since it marks a concrete step towards membership.