In an interview conducted on May 28 and published by Time magazine, Joe Biden appeared to suggest that he no longer supports Ukraine’s membership in NATO, a departure from previously stated goals by Washington and the alliance itself.
Recent comments by US President Joe Biden, signaling that Ukraine is unlikely to become a NATO member during its fight to repel Russian occupation troops, are not a change in Washington’s position on the issue ahead a key summit for the leaders of the military alliance, a senior State Department diplomat told REL.
But James O’Brien, the US assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, told Radio Free Europe on June 11 during a visit to Armenia that “interpretations are beginning to emerge” of the meaning of Biden’s comments and that Washington remains committed to membership. of Ukraine in the alliance.
“There is no change in our position. I think what the president said, if I could paraphrase, he said he doesn’t believe in Ukraine joining NATO right now,” O’Brien said.
“Our position, really… is that Ukraine will be in the alliance when conditions allow,” he said.
In a wide-ranging June 4 interview in Time, Biden said that “peace looks like making sure that Russia never, never, never, never invades Ukraine. This is what peace looks like.”
But, he added, “that doesn’t mean NATO, [that] they are part of NATO.”
O’Brien elaborated further by saying that Biden was referring to the NATO summit in July when he stated that he was “not prepared” to support Ukraine’s membership.
“It will be clear that Ukraine needs to undertake some reforms and it will take some time to adapt its military from what it was before the further invasion of Russia to what it would take to be part of NATO- s”, he said.
“And we will lay out [at the summit] how NATO will help Ukraine to prepare. So we are talking about several steps,” he added.
NATO said in the final statement of last year’s summit in Vilnius that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO” and there are indications that the alliance’s upcoming summit in Washington next month will reinforce the message of support for Kiev’s eventual membership.
In response to Biden’s interview, a NATO source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Radio Free Europe that “my understanding is that the American line has been and still is to offer Ukraine “a bridge to membership in NATO”.
O’Brien echoed those comments, with Ukraine remaining a NATO ally for the foreseeable future as it prepares for the longer term.
“We’re talking about NATO helping Ukraine build its future force, so that it knows it has a military capable of deterring and repelling further Russian aggression, but also that NATO will help reform of Ukraine,” said O’Brien.
