Regarding Ukraine's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, Washington and Berlin are in no hurry to accept Kyiv's invitation to the bloc. However, in addition to the USA and Germany, at least 5 member states of the Alliance "block" this issue. About this reports Politico.
As four officials and diplomats from the United States and NATO told the Western media on condition of anonymity, Germany and the United States are among the largest states that are not in a hurry to accept the call of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to receive an invitation to join the bloc as soon as possible.
The fact is that the country's invitation to NATO is mentioned in the plan for Ukraine's victory in the war with the Russian Federation, announced by Zelensky recently.
At the same time, the Ukrainian president admitted that real joining the alliance would be possible only after the end of the war. However, Zelensky also emphasized the fundamental importance for Ukraine to receive an invitation to NATO even during the war.
Instead, the Western press writes that the key members of the North Atlantic Alliance are worried about the possibility of going to war with the Russian Federation.
Recently, the head of the US mission to NATO, Julian Smith, emphasized Washington's position on this issue. She stated that, as of now, the Alliance "has not reached the point where he is ready to offer membership or invite Ukraine."
In addition, Zelenskyi previously admitted that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz would not support his idea of quickly inviting Ukraine to NATO membership. But he added that with the German side "a lot of work will have to be done ... but the United States will still have an influence."
In addition to Washington and Berlin, Hungary and Slovakia are resisting Ukraine's accession to NATO. But the reason for this is different. As the mass media explain, their "current populist leaders generally adhere to the pro-Kremlin line."
In particular, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocks EU funds for providing defense aid to Ukraine, and withdraws from the NATO program to transfer arms to Kyiv as part of support.
Meanwhile, the head of the Slovak government, Robert Fico, said earlier this month that the permission for Ukraine to join NATO was ostensibly "will be a good basis for the third world war".
But there are still several member countries of the Alliance that do not want to speed up the issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO, but do not do so publicly.
"Countries like Belgium, Slovenia or Spain are hiding behind the USA and Germany. They don't want to." one NATO representative told Politico.
A second official told Western media that those countries "support it in the abstract" but will begin to oppose the idea more publicly as it gets closer to implementation.
This puts them at odds with such countries as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as with Poland, which are more enthusiastic about Ukraine's accession to NATO and have repeatedly stated this.
"However, officials who spoke to Politico tried to emphasize that neither the US nor Germany is ruling out Ukraine's possible entry into the alliance," — noted in the publication.
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