President Joe Biden reportedly suggested that Ukraine would not be able to join NATO until armed hostilities between the country and Russia ended.
Biden made the comments in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria ahead of the critical upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania on July 11 and 12.
“I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” said Biden. “For example, if you did that, then, you know — and I mean what I say — we’re determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory. It’s a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then we’re all in war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case.”
Biden’s comments follow two key developments in the international conflict. The president recently decided to start shipping controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine, and Turkey has announced its support of Ukraine joining the 31-member military alliance, The Guardian reported.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, security guarantees will be discussed by NATO leaders at the upcoming summit, even if Ukrainian membership will not be acted upon as suggested by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
“I think we have to lay out a rational path for Ukraine to be able to qualify to be able to get into NATO. … But I think it’s premature to say, to call for a vote, you know, in now, because there’s other qualifications that need to be met, including democratization and some of those issues,” said Biden, according to CNN.
Biden previously claimed he would not make it easy for Ukraine to join the alliance. “I think they’ve done everything relating to demonstrating the ability to coordinate militarily, but there’s a whole issue of is their system secure? Is it noncorrupt? Does it meet all the standards … every other nation in NATO does,” Biden said in June, The Hill reported.
Continued taxpayer funding of Ukraine’s military defense has divided Capitol Hill over the last year, with more than $100 billion already allocated to the country’s war effort, according to Department of Defense officials.
More than a quarter of respondents to a Pew Research Center poll said they thought the United States was spending too much taxpayer money on the war in Ukraine.
