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'They've got to…': Joe Biden's message to Ukraine on NATO bid
The first session of a NATO-Ukraine council with president Volodymyr Zelensky present is set to take place in the Lithuania.
The United States won't make special arrangements for Ukraine to join the NATO military alliance, president Joe Biden said. "They've got to meet the same standards. So we're not going to make it easy," the US president told reporters before a meeting of NATO leaders in Lithuania next month.
The first session of a NATO-Ukraine council with president Volodymyr Zelensky present is set to take place in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, the alliance's chief Jens Stoltenberg said. The meeting will give Kyiv a more equal seat at the table "to consult and decide on security issues," he said, adding that though NATO will tighten political ties with Ukraine at the summit, there will be no talk of membership.
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"We're not going to discuss an invitation at the Vilnius Summit, but how we can move Ukraine closer to NATO," Stoltenberg said.
“I'm confident that we will find a good solution and consensus,” he added.
Although, German defense minister Boris Pistorius suggested that it was possible some requirements for membership could be eased if Ukraine was ready to join.
On Moscow deploying nuclear arms within close ally and neighbor Belarus, Joe Biden said, “I've commented on that many times. It's totally irresponsible"- echoing sentiments from US secretary of state Antony Blinken who had called Belarus' choice to accept the weapons “provocative.”
