NATO debates wording to support Ukraine's membership
Discussions continue among North Atlantic Alliance members on how decisive the wording of the decision at the NATO summit in Washington on Ukraine's future membership should be.
Source: European Pravda with reference to CNN
Details: The sources of CNN report that the US and Germany propose to include the wording about Ukraine having a "bridge" to NATO membership in the Summit’s decision – similar wording was included in a recently signed American-Ukrainian security agreement.
Meanwhile, the UK and some Central and Eastern European countries support the wording about Ukraine’s "irreversible path" to the Alliance, used by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
An American official told CNN that the word "irreversible" was unlikely to be supported by the whole Alliance, giving the countries that would act against it, for instance, Hungary, as an example. Another source said that not all NATO members were ready for such a wording, as Ukraine has not implemented all the democratic and anti-corruption reforms necessary for membership.
An official from a European country that is in favour of Ukraine’s NATO membership stated that the European allies were lobbying the White House so that the wording in the decision of the Washington summit was as precise as possible.
"We instinctively feel a new path should be laid out. Fast tracking [Ukraine’s membership] should be looked at," he said.
CNN noted that there is a general recognition that NATO’s position out of the summit needs to have advanced from last year’s meeting in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, when the allies declared that "Ukraine’s future is in NATO" but didn’t offer a timeline.
Earlier, Julian Smith, US ambassador to NATO, stated that important changes in the wording regarding Ukraine's membership prospects would be made at an upcoming meeting of NATO leaders in Washington.
The Ukrainian government hopes that the decision of the summit will contain a specific position regarding the irreversibility of Ukraine’s membership.
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