US President Joe Biden sent a clear message to Ukraine on Thursday, saying no country can join NATO in time of war because it would “guarantee” World War III, according to House Leader White.

Biden made the comments at a press conference in Helsinki alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto after being asked about his previous comments about the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO before the end of the war started by Vladimir Putin last year.

“First of all, nobody can join NATO while there’s a war going on, when a NATO country is attacked, because that guarantees that we’re at war, and we’re in World War III,” the president told the American. a reference to Article 5 of the alliance’s charter, which states that an attack on one member state is an attack on all.

“The discussion is not about whether they should join [NATO] or not, but when they can join and they will join NATO,” Joe Biden added, before adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already lost the war he started and that he will eventually conclude that no one will not be able to sustain the conflict in Ukraine for years.

At the same time, he assured that NATO will defend “every inch” of the alliance and that the United States will maintain its firm commitment to it, no matter what happens on the American political scene. “I absolutely guarantee it,” he said.

Joe Biden says NATO has never been stronger

Biden said this at the end of the summit in Helsinki, which was attended by the heads of the Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Norway.

After Finland joined NATO in April, only Sweden remains among the current states outside the alliance, but it has also been participating in NATO military exercises for years.

But Turkish President Recep Erdogan said on Wednesday that he expects the Turkish parliament to ratify Sweden’s membership of the alliance this fall in a new legislative session, after his government dropped its objections to the northern country joining NATO.

Joe Biden also said Thursday ahead of a bilateral meeting with the president of Finland that his country joining the alliance was an “incredible” step for NATO and that the organization “has never been stronger.”

Joe Biden also welcomed Sweden’s prospect as a member, saying “the vision of the world we all share is a vision of a freer and safer world.”

Speaking about the results of the summit in Helsinki, a White House official told Reuters that “we are seeing a complete change in the security structure of Europe as a result of Russia’s moves and the rapprochement of the Nordic countries with the West in response to Russia’s aggressive and destabilizing actions.”

Ukraine is still waiting at the gates of NATO

The US president’s comments on Thursday came just a day after a NATO summit in Vilnius concluded, during which the allies failed to reach a consensus on a path to Ukraine’s swift entry into the alliance, but promised new weapons and waived one of the obstacles to the neighboring country’s admission as a member. .

In particular, NATO decided to abandon the requirement for Ukraine to comply with the Accession Action Plan (AAP), which defines the goals that must be achieved before joining the military alliance.

“We fully support Ukraine’s right to choose its own security mechanism. The future of Ukraine lies in NATO. We confirm the commitments we made at the Bucharest Summit in 2008, according to which Ukraine will become a member of NATO, and today we recognize that the country has already made sufficient progress towards full Euro-Atlantic integration, so that the action plan for accession in a statement signed by the member countries following the meeting.

Diplomatic sources told The Washington Post before the summit that the US president, however, was more hesitant than other NATO leaders, especially on the eastern flank of the alliance, on the topic of Ukraine joining the alliance, wanting, in addition to ending the conflict with Russia, Kyiv to implement a series of internal reforms

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