CNN: NATO Makes Important Statement About Ukraine's Future
- 9.07.2024, 8:47
An important signal for Kyiv and Moscow.
A draft NATO communique says Ukraine's path to joining the alliance is "irreversible," according to three people familiar with the matter.
It is noted that the question of how strong of a guarantee to provide to Ukraine about its future membership to NATO has been a key source of debate between the 32 members of the alliance ahead of this week’s summit in Washington, CNN previously reported.
The draft could change before the final version, but the presence of the “irreversible” language would be a significant signal to Kyiv and Moscow as the war in Ukraine continues with little sign of an end.
One of the sources, a US official, said the White House supports the use of the word in the final communique as long as the document also reaffirms that Ukraine’s work on democratic reforms must continue. The official said the final version is expected to contain that language.
While many Europeans have emphasized the need for strong language around Ukraine’s eventual future in the alliance, US and German officials had proposed describing a “bridge” to NATO membership for Ukraine.
A senior US administration official said that the alliance will make “significant new announcements about how we’re increasing NATO’s military, political and financial support for Ukraine” as part of Kyiv’s “bridge to NATO.”
“There is rightly considerable focus on what Allies will say about Ukraine’s membership path in the summit declaration. The language will be clear and forceful. It will recognize Ukraine’s vital ongoing reform efforts and demonstrate Allied support for Ukraine on its path to NATO membership,” Michael Carpenter, the senior advisor for Europe at the National Security Council, said at a briefing Monday.
On Friday, the official said that what they “described in terms of the bridge to membership and the deliverables that NATO will be unveiling for Ukraine is quite substantial.”
“We’re not talking about some sort of plan for how they’re going to get from here to there. We’re talking about standing up an entire command at Wiesbaden, and we’ll look at how we do these various pieces that I mentioned earlier – training, coordination, equipping, coordination, logistics, force development. This is a very serious effort to get Ukraine in a position, as I said earlier, where it will be ready to assume its roles and responsibilities within the alliance on day one,” the official said.
“I’ll let the Ukrainians speak for themselves, but I think they understand the value of what NATO will be doing for that,” he added.