The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 14th that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are pressuring the United States to speed up the process of joining Ukraine.
The New York Times reported that several NATO member states want to give Ukraine a firmer political commitment to joining NATO at a summit next month in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Some NATO members want specific timelines and targets for granting Ukraine membership status after the Russo-Ukrainian war has subsided, US officials said.
There is a high demand among Baltic and Eastern European member states that share a border with Russia to provide Ukraine with a faster and more reliable accession route.
“The only chance for peace in Europe is Ukraine’s accession to NATO,” Latvian Prime Minister Krisyanis Karins said at a strategy meeting held in Riga that day, and that any other outcome would inevitably lead to “Russia’s return.”
Earlier this month, at a meeting of foreign ministers of NATO held in Oslo, Norway, several allies, mainly Poland and the Baltic states, insisted that Ukraine’s position in relation to NATO membership should be further clarified.
However, the United States, the main pillar of NATO, has a different opinion. President Joe Biden has not mentioned the specific timing and method of joining, while maintaining the principled position that ‘Ukraine will eventually join the alliance’.
Some Western European countries, including Germany, are sympathizing with the United States.
These members have doubts about Ukraine’s readiness to join the NATO alliance and are concerned that Ukraine’s accession could lead other members to direct conflict with Russia.
The NYT commented that President Biden is trying to keep NATO’s solidarity under the premise that ‘World War 3 must be avoided’, and that all options to join Ukraine in this situation entail considerable risk.
However, the New York Times reported that as member states have recently raised their voices that the process of joining Ukraine should be accelerated, the US State Department has no choice but to come up with a more specific route even if the schedule is not set.
U.S. officials said there are no proposals to change their position from the White House at this time, but they expected to be discussed in the coming weeks.
In this regard, a senior US official said that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with President Joe Biden in Washington, DC, on the 13th and proposed a compromise.
The NYT added that this compromise is a way for member states to agree that Ukraine does not have to go through the usual membership procedure as it fought real wars with NATO-supplied weapons and training.