One thing that will not happen at the NATO summit in Vilnius will be the extension of an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance. At least, that’s the import of a Washington Post story published yesterday afternoon which reports of a divide among NATO members over the question. While members in Eastern Europe want Ukraine to be brought in now, Washington is “more cautious” the Post says. Officials from NATO nations, many of whom spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity, said there is consensus among the alliance’s 31 members that, despite advocacy from Kiev, NATO will not issue Ukraine a formal invitation to join at the July 11-12 summit. But Eastern European nations are pushing for concrete steps toward that goal, including potential commitment to a timeline for Ukraine’s accession, even as the United States and some Western European nations advocate smaller steps that could include a bureaucratic upgrade to a NATO-Ukraine body or a decision to further expand NATO’s technical support to Ukraine’s defense sector.
“The Vilnius summit will not be historic without the decision on Ukraine’s future in the alliance,” lamented Ambassador Nataliia Galibarenko, the head of Ukraine’s mission to NATO. Despite the difficulties involved with admitting a country in the midst of a major war, Ukraine believes that NATO “should define a path for our membership, and set the algorithm of Ukraine’s movement toward accession to NATO, instead of another repetition of the statement about ‘open doors’ policy,” Galibarenko said. “This is not enough.”