US President Joe Biden and NATO allies will “send a united, positive signal” on a path to NATO membership for Ukraine at the Vilnius summit, the White House said, but declined to provide a specific timetable for accession.
Allies will “discuss Ukraine’s path to future membership in NATO,” during the summit in the Lithuanian capital, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Tuesday, as he sought to temper expectations.
“As President Biden noted, bringing Ukraine into the Alliance now while we’re in Vilnius would bring NATO into war with Russia,” he said, later adding that Ukraine still “has further steps to take along its reform path” before accession to the alliance.
“But allies will send a united, positive signal on Ukraine’s path to future member membership in the alliance,” Sullivan said.
Still, Sullivan declined to predict a specific date for Ukraine joining the alliance during Tuesday’s briefing with reporters.
“I can’t put a timetable on it. I don’t believe that you will see that coming out of here,” he said, “From our perspective, it is the work of the alliance with Ukraine to lay out that reform path, and then to have Ukraine work towards it.”
Leaders in Vilnius, he said, “are continuing to discuss this morning the precise nature of process with respect to Ukraine’s pathway,” which will be released as part of a communique Wednesday.
In an interview with CNN previewing the NATO summit last week, Biden acknowledged he didn’t believe there was “unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” noting that NATO’s Article 5 would necessitate NATO allies defend Ukraine against Russia’s military invasion.
Biden is set to meet Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Lithuania, where the two leaders will “discuss how the US — alongside our allies and partners — are prepared to make long-term commitments to help Ukraine defend itself now and to deter future aggression,” Sullivan said.
“Ukraine will be a big focus,” throughout the summit, Sullivan said, with the newly-launched NATO-Ukraine council meeting for the first time Wednesday to discuss “a new package of increased support for Ukraine, look at Ukraine’s long-term needs, and expand plans for Ukraine’s interoperability with NATO.”
