NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has privately suggested that allies agree Ukraine could join NATO after the war without following a Membership Action Plan, which is a series of military and democratic reforms an applicant nation must make before accession, Politico reported.
Removing the MAP hurdle speeds up Ukraine’s bid to become an ally, but doesn’t provide any timeline or guarantees that Kyiv will eventually receive unanimous approval for its membership.
That falls short of Ukraine’s wishes to join right away but goes further toward making them eventually come true. US President Joe Biden is “open” to the plan and told Stoltenberg as much during their discussion in Washington on Tuesday. As NATO’s most important member, US support goes a long way to waiving the MAP requirement during the alliance’s July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
“If it’s what America really, really, really wants, they can usually get it over the line,” said an official from a NATO country, who, like the seven other NATO and member-state officials Politico spoke to, was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations.
“This idea put forward by Stoltenberg should hopefully be consensual within the alliance,” another allied official said.
A NATO official further noted that “there seems to be landing space” within the alliance for the proposal.
Momentum to grease Ukraine’s membership pathway started building in May when French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv needed security guarantees and indications that it could join NATO someday. “If we want a sustainable peace and want to be credible toward Ukraine, we must include it in an architecture of security,” he said during a conference in Slovakia.
His remarks made clear that France, historically resistant to moves that frayed ties with Russia, was more open to once-divisive options.
A senior diplomat from Eastern Europe said on Friday that the proposal to remove the need for a MAP, “if suggested, is a good one. We would support.” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was also upbeat. “There are increasing signs that everyone will be able to agree on this,” he told reporters Friday, adding, “I would be open for this.”
AMK/PR
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