US President Joe Biden on Saturday answered a resounding “no” to reporters’ questions about whether he would make it easier for Ukraine to join NATO, CNN and Sky News reported.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Joe Biden at the G7 meeting in JapanPhoto: Presidency of Ukraine via Bestimage / Bestimage / Profimedia

When asked by journalists whether he intends to “simplify” Kyiv’s accession to NATO, Biden answered “no”, saying that Ukraine must meet all the criteria. “So we’re not going to take it easy.”

  • “I think they have done everything to demonstrate the ability to coordinate military operations, but there is a whole problem: is their system secure or not compromised?
  • Do they meet all the standards that every other NATO country meets? I think they will, I think it’s possible. But it doesn’t happen automatically,” Biden said before heading to Philadelphia for his first official campaign trip.

A day ago, CNN, citing sources, reported that US President Joe Biden would agree to remove one of the obstacles to Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

According to the source, Biden would be willing to abandon the Accession Action Plan (AAP) for Ukraine, which was described in the 2008 agreement as “the next step for Ukraine … on their direct path to membership.” The MAP, characterized as “a program of advice, assistance and practical support tailored to the individual needs of countries wishing to join the Alliance”, is the process that other countries have had to go through to join NATO. Why does it matter? Its removal would be a small step to facilitate Ukraine’s entry into the alliance.

It is part of a proposal by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and was discussed when the two leaders met in Washington earlier this week, the source said.

The US president is most concerned about finding a concrete proposal that will be supported by the rest of the allies and that will signal to Ukraine that it is moving towards accession, the source said.

However, the United States still does not see Ukraine joining the alliance as inevitable because of the reforms Kyiv needs to implement, and the source said Stoltenberg’s proposal reflects that.

The proposal of the head of NATO does not establish a specific calendar for the accession of Ukraine to the alliance, which was strongly requested by the president of Ukraine, as well as some members of the alliance.