President Biden says Kiev must meet alliance’s criteria to join U.S.-led bloc
Ukraine will not have “simple” Joining the U.S.-led NATO alliance will require meeting “same standard” Like any other member of the group, US President Joe Biden has announced. His comments came amid reports that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had proposed a plan to simplify procedures for Kiev.
“They have to meet the same standards. So we’re not going to make it easy,” Biden told reporters near Washington on Saturday.
His statement came after he met with Stoltenberg at the White House on Tuesday. At the meeting, NATO chiefs reportedly presented a plan to simplify Ukraine’s accession process, saying Kiev had already made significant progress towards accession.
Under his plan, the country would not be required to complete the so-called “Member Action Plan” (MAP), usually imposed on applicants by a US-led bloc. While other Eastern European members of the bloc go through the process before being admitted, recent joiner Finland is exempt from the process.
Many American media reported that Biden appeared to be “Open” program, and even temporarily supports it. Meanwhile, other reports on the subject suggest that Biden has another plan for Ukraine in mind. The New York Times, for example, reported that the U.S. government was reluctant to grant Ukraine full NATO membership, instead pushing for an “Israeli model,” which would mean a time-limited commitment to maintaining the flow of Western weapons to designated countries.
Joining NATO has been a hot topic among pro-Western Ukrainian politicians for decades, but little progress has been made on that path. The pace appears to have picked up amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev – sparked, among other things, by Ukraine’s NATO aspirations – with senior Ukrainian officials repeatedly urging the US-led alliance to bring the country into it.
