President Joe Biden poured cold water on Ukraine's hopes of expedited membership into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) amid Russia's invasion on Saturday.
Biden is a key ally to Ukraine amid the Russia-Ukraine war, launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin last February. His administration has provided billions of dollars of military aid to help Kyiv defend its sovereignty—allowing Ukraine to turn the tide of the war in its favor—and has often sided with the Eastern European nation on many diplomatic disputes. However, Biden has also said the country is not ready to join NATO, a military alliance between North American and European nations, citing the need for government reforms.
On Saturday, the president addressed the possibility of speeding up the process to allow Ukraine to join the alliance ahead of his 2024 campaign rally in Philadelphia.
A reporter asked Biden about previous reports claiming that he supported waiving the requirement for Ukraine to obtain a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to join NATO. According to the MAP, candidates must make military and democratic reforms before being considered to join. However, this could be a lengthy process for Kyiv amid what its government views as a more urgent need to join the alliance.
However, Biden disputed that he would consider easing the process for Ukraine.
"No," he said. "They've got to meet the same standards. So I'm not going to make it easier."
Biden added that Ukraine has "done everything relating the ability to coordinate militarily," a key aspect of NATO membership, but raised questions about other qualifications to join the military alliance.
"There's a whole issue of is their system secure? Is it non-corrupt? Does it meet all the standards that every other nation in NATO does. I think it will. I think it can. But it's not automatic," he said.
Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment via email.
Daniel Fried, the former U.S. ambassador to Poland and a Weiser Family Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Newsweek on Saturday that Biden's remarks should not be interpreted to mean that Biden supports a prolonged process for Ukraine to join NATO.
"I think Biden's statement by itself is not problematic at all, because clearly you don't want to argue the converse--that there should be a specially easy path for Ukraine," he said. "The criteria that we laid out in the 1990s should apply--countries have to be democracies. They have to have free market economies, responsible foreign policy."
He said countries are also required to be at peace with their neighbors, but that would not apply to Ukraine in this case because they are not at fault for the war.
Fried warned that the administration being too ambiguous about Ukraine's future NATO status could signal to Putin that Kyiv remains in a "gray zone" with regards to its ties to the West.
"Anytime there's ambiguity from the administration about where we're headed with Ukraine and NATO, that can be read as Putin that there's a signal that ultimately that Ukraine is in a gray zone and not part of the Western family," he said. "And that, as recent history has demonstrated, is a temptation for more war. For Putin to continue the war or start a new one."
Ukraine has sought to accelerate its NATO membership, a major sticking point with Moscow prior to its invasion last year, amid the Russia-Ukraine war. NATO has backed Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict, with many of its member states signaling support for its eventual ascension to the alliance once it meets the standards set out for all members. Concerns about political corruption have thus far kept Ukraine out of NATO.
Other NATO members have also raised concerns about whether Ukraine is ready to join the international alliance. Germany, for example, has said Ukraine membership would only be possible after the war with Russia ends.
"NATO's open door policy remains in place, but at the same time, it is clear that we cannot talk about accepting new members [who are] in the midst of a war," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said earlier this month during the meeting of NATO ministers in Oslo, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the war has seen the alliance move closer to Putin's front door. In April, Finland, which shares its eastern border with Russia, became the 31st NATO member state, while Sweden is expected to follow. The two Scandinavian nations applied to join following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Update 06/17/2023 8:12 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Daniel Fried.
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