During an interview with the Washington-based Defense Writers Group yesterday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg echoed President Joe Biden a day earlier on the prospects of Ukraine joining the Alliance anytime soon. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had claimed earlier June 14 that NATO leaders had agreed that Ukraine should be brought into the Alliance. Stoltenberg is no closer to allowing Ukraine into NATO than Biden was on Monday. “Ukraine is an aspirant country,” Stoltenberg said, reported Defense News. “We provide support to them, especially to continue to modernize and refine their defense and security institutions, civilian-political control over their security services, and not least fighting corruption.”
He went on: “We have different building-integrity programs, which are very much about how to fight corruption as part of the reforms ... which Ukraine has already embarked on, but we need more. We need to do more with them to make sure they are fully implemented.”
