Priya Aditi
The White House announced on Friday that Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) will be discussed at the alliance’s upcoming summit, but it won’t come out as a member.
Jake Sullivan, White House National Security Advisor, stated that next week’s summit in Vilnius will highlight NATO’s willingness to contemplate Ukraine’s membership, a “milestone” in and of itself, according to Sullivan.
Sullivan stated, “The NATO Summit will delve into the question of NATO’s relationship with Ukraine, including both the question of Ukraine’s path towards future membership and the question of a multi-year-old ongoing partnership.”
“The path to NATO membership for Ukraine will be discussed at the summit, but Kyiv still needs to take additional steps before membership, and Ukraine will not join NATO as a result of this summit,” he added.
Sullivan noted that Ukraine would have the opportunity to discuss the necessary reforms for Kyiv to meet NATO standards.
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is prepared to attend the summit to establish that his nation should join the alliance when its conflict with Russia ends, Sullivan stated that the White House anticipates Sweden’s NATO membership to be approved in the near future.
Additionally, he stated that Turkey and Hungary may “possibly” abandon their opposition at the upcoming summit.
“If not, we believe it will happen in the not-too-distant future,” Sullivan said, adding that there was “fundamental goodwill” toward Sweden’s move within the alliance.
Last year, Sweden and Finland ended decades of military neutrality and submitted applications to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In April, Finland became an official member of the alliance, but Turkey and Hungary prevented Sweden from joining due to the need for unanimity in support of new members.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preventing Sweden from joining the European Union due to a long-standing disagreement over Stockholm’s decision to allow alleged Kurdish militants to reside in the Nordic country.
