US State Department avoids answer as to whether Washington opposes wording about Ukraine's "irreversible path" to NATO

The US State Department has said that it would not discuss any wording from the upcoming communiqué of the NATO summit in Washington against the background of reports spread in the press about disputes over how the clause on Ukraine's membership will be formulated. 

Source: Matthew Miller, spokesperson of US State Department at a briefing on 20 June; European Pravda

Details: Miller was answering a question about whether the United States opposes the use of the word "irreversible" to characterise Ukraine's path to NATO.

Quote from Miller: "So I’m not going to get into what the eventual words might be in a NATO communiqué for a summit that hasn’t actually happened."

But, he added, "Ukraine’s future is in NATO." 

Quote: "It will become a member of NATO. We have made that clear. And we will continue to work with our Allies in NATO on the exact bridge to membership and what that looks like and what Ukraine has to do," the spokesperson said.

He added that the United States will coordinate diplomatically with its allies on the wording of the summit communiqué in Washington.

Background:

• Recently, CNN and The Telegraph reported that discussions were continuing among North Atlantic Alliance members about how decisive the wording should be for the decision of the NATO summit in Washington regarding Ukraine's future membership.

• While the United States and Germany support the wording that "a bridge" to NATO membership should be created, the United Kingdom and some Central and Eastern European countries favour the wording that Ukraine should have an "irreversible path" to the Alliance.

• Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, said she hoped that the Washington NATO summit decision would be worded to include a statement on the irreversibility of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic course. 

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