NATO said that Ukraine will get a path toward membership and urged it to keep advancing reforms in a communique issued after the conclusion of the alliance’s summit in Brussels on June 14, 2021.
“We reiterate the decision made at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance with the Membership Action Plan (MAP) as an integral part of the process,” said the statement. “We stand firm in our support for Ukraine’s right to decide its own future and foreign policy course free from outside interference.”
However, the document did not make any indication of timescales, nor did it offer any concrete guarantees for further steps.
“The Annual National Programmes under the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) remain the mechanism by which Ukraine takes forward the reforms pertaining to its aspiration for NATO membership,” NATO stated.
“Ukraine should make full use of all instruments available under the NUC to reach its objective of implementing NATO principles and standards. The success of wide-ranging, sustainable, and irreversible reforms, including combating corruption, promoting an inclusive political process, and decentralization reform, based on democratic values, respect for human rights, minorities, and the rule of law, will be crucial in laying the groundwork for a prosperous and peaceful Ukraine.”
“Further reforms in the security sector, including the reform of the Security Services of Ukraine, are particularly important,” the alliance emphasized.
Any hopes that this would be the year that Ukraine would move closer to joining NATO were dashed in May 2021, when the organization announced that Ukraine and Georgia would not be invited to attend the Brussels summit, part of which would be devoted to the discussion of their security situations. Russia is in control of 20 percent of Georgian territory and 7 percent of Ukrainian territory, after military invasions in 2008 and 2014, respectively.
President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, to support a Membership Action Plan for Ukraine during their phone call on June 7.
After the call, the Ukrainian President’s Office published a statement, which said that Biden “highlighted… the importance of providing the Ukrainian state with a NATO Membership Action Plan.”
This was retracted shortly after, when the White House denied that Biden had made any such commitment. When asked whether Biden supported giving Ukraine a MAP this year, the White House refused to comment.
Ukraine was recognized by NATO as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner in June 2020. This status gives the country further information-sharing and joint exercise opportunities, but does not guarantee any further steps towards membership.
