LONDON — The U.K. would be “very supportive” of a fast-tracked accession to NATO for Ukraine, the British foreign secretary said.
Speaking at a press conference at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, James Cleverly said Britain would support proposals to allow Kyiv to skip a so-called Membership Action Plan (MAP) in order to join NATO.
The alliance launched the MAP in 1999 to help aspiring countries meet NATO standards and prepare for future membership. During that phase, aspiring members receive advice, assistance and practical support to make military and democratic reforms, but participation in the MAP does not guarantee they will be accepted into NATO.
Dropping the MAP would ease Ukraine’s access to the transatlantic alliance, and act as a compromise between Eastern European allies, who want the war-torn country to be given immediate membership, and other Western countries, which fear accepting Ukraine into NATO would worsen tensions with Russia and believe Kyiv still needs to tackle issues such as corruption.
Cleverly told the conference Wednesday that Ukraine has evolved “incredibly quickly” and referred to recent remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said that Kyiv already meets “many of the requirements” of the membership action plan.
“I think the U.K.’s position would be very, very supportive if we moved on from the membership action plan recognizing that the offer to both Sweden and Finland didn’t require that, and Ukrainians have demonstrated their commitment to reform the military for requirement of NATO membership through their actions on the battlefield,” Cleverly said, adding: “I think all NATO allies recognize that.”
U.S. President Joe Biden would also welcome the removal of a MAP for Ukraine’s entry into NATO, according to two U.S. officials. Biden spoke about the idea with Stoltenberg in Washington D.C. last week.
A formal announcement of the MAP requirement’s removal would most likely come at NATO’s July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.