Joe Biden: Ukraine not ready for NATO membership
US President Joe Biden does not believe that Ukraine is ready for NATO membership - and for it to be considered at all, Russia's war must first end, he says in an interview with CNN.
If Ukraine were to join in the middle of a raging war, it would mean that NATO would be forced to defend "every centimeter" of Ukrainian territory, according to Biden.
- Then we are all at war. We are at war with Russia, if that were the case.
Biden also emphasizes that Ukraine needs to make progress in terms of democratic conditions before membership can become an issue.
Ukraine has pressed for concrete steps towards NATO membership to be taken during the summit in Vilnius starting tomorrow.
The NATO process|The Summit in Vilnius
Ukraine: NATO clears obstacles to our path to membership
The NATO countries have decided to let Ukraine skip a step on the way to future membership in the defense alliance. This is stated by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Twitter, writes AFP.
"NATO allies have reached a consensus to remove MAP on Ukraine's path to membership. I welcome this long-awaited decision," he writes.
The decision concerns the so-called "Member action plan" (Map), which means that a country that wants to become a member of NATO must report annually on how to prepare for membership.
At the same time, an anonymous official points out that the action plan is only one of several steps in the accession process.
- So even when it is removed, Ukraine will still need to implement further reforms before they can join, he told AFP.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed hopes that the summit in Vilnius will send a clear signal that the country will be able to join NATO when the war is over.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) meets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Stock photo from November. Henrik Montgomery/TT
NATO process Sweden's application
"Sweden should have understood that Erdogan would demand more"
With hindsight, it can be concluded that the Swedish NATO process could have been managed better. That's what Håkan Gunneriusson, docent in military science at Mittuniversitetet, tells Expressen.
Gunneriusson notes at the same time that it was initially impossible to foresee that Turkey's "rationality would be steered so far away from what is good for NATO". But Kristian Gerner, professor of history at Lund University, thinks that one could have counted on that.
- Both governments have made the mistake of engaging in bazaar bargaining with Erdogan. It was obvious that he would constantly raise the price.
Late this afternoon, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius. The meeting takes place at the invitation of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
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