BRUSSELS: Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, said on Wednesday that the military alliance members are divided on how to respond at an upcoming summit about Ukraine’s request to join.
He said there are different views in the alliance on that issue, and of course, the only way to make decisions in NATO is by consensus.
Ukraine — supported by NATO nations in eastern Europe — is urging for a “clear message” at a July summit of the group leaders in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius that it will join after the war with Russia ends.
Kyiv concedes it will not become a NATO member while war rages on its soil. But it wanted the group to move beyond a vague 2008 pledge that it would one day be a NATO member.
Stoltenberg said that no one was able to tell exactly what will be the final decision on the issue.
US reluctant on Ukraine’s NATO membership
Envoys from NATO nations say its dominant military power, the US, is reluctant to move forward than the pledge on membership made to Ukraine fifteen years ago.
Joining NATO would mean that Kyiv would be covered by the group’s Article V collective defence clause that obliges all members to help defend it if attacked.
The Western allies of Ukraine are mulling if other kinds of security assurances can be offered to Ukraine that would reassure it as an interim measure before it became a NATO member.
France on Tuesday said it was willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine on security guarantees which would help it to defend itself in the long run.
Stoltenberg said that the ultimate security guarantee would be the alliance’s membership, but that was not something that would happen amid a war.
