The President of the United States, Joe Biden is likely to conduct a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit on Wednesday.
According to a CNN report, an official familiar with the development informed that the US President’s meeting with Zelenskiy will mark a sign of unity as the Ukrainian President’s presence at the summit had been in question.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been among the most crucial agenda for NATO leaders, who have shown their interest in a future pathway for Ukraine to become a member of the military alliance.
Amid Kyiv’s ongoing conflict with Moscow, Ukraine will dominate the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Vilnius. This is a result of Biden’s unshakable belief in keeping the military alliance united behind Ukraine.
As per the CNN report, the alliance is facing questions regarding a potential path to NATO membership for Ukraine and additional military assistance.
Biden’s take on Ukraine’s NATO membership
The latest development comes a week after, US President expressed his views on how he doesn’t think Ukraine is ready for NATO membership, adding that the military alliance is a process that takes some time to meet all qualifications, from democratization to a whole range of other issues.
“I don’t think it (Ukraine) is ready for membership in NATO,” the US President said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria when asked about Ukraine’s NATO membership. Biden said he doesn’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family in the middle of the war.
“I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war. If the war is going on, then we’re all in the war. You know, we’re at war with Russia, if that were the case. So, I think we have to lay out a path for a rational path for Russia, for you and me, for Ukraine to be able to qualify to get into NATO,” Biden said.
Zelenskiy not attending NATO summit for ‘fun’
Previously, Zelenskiy said that he does not plan on attending the NATO summit “for fun” as he wants a clearer pathway for Ukraine to become part of a military alliance with security guarantees. He stressed that Ukraine should get clear security guarantees while it is not a member of NATO.
In an interview with ABC News, Zelenskiy said, “It would be an important message to say that NATO is not afraid of Russia. Ukraine should get clear security guarantees while it is not in NATO. Only under these conditions, our meeting would be meaningful, otherwise it’s just another politics.”
Over the past several months, Biden and Zelenskiy have had multiple high-profile meetings. Since the conflict started, Zelenskiy’s first visit outside Ukraine was to the US. A few months later, Biden travelled to Kyiv in a surprise visit and announced a half-a-million dollar assistance package. The last in-person meeting between the two leaders took place at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima in May.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden said providing Ukraine with cluster munitions for the first time was a “difficult decision,” but he was ultimately convinced to send the widely-banned weapons as Kyiv needed the ammunition against its ongoing counteroffensive against Russia, reported CNN.
The White House announced sending cluster munitions to Ukraine. Biden said, “It was a very difficult decision on my part. And by the way, I discussed this with our allies, I discussed this with our friends up on the Hill,” adding, “The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” according to CNN.