Nato would be wrong to reject Ukraine’s membership plea

US president Joe Biden has been busy curbing expectations about Nato’s looming decision over Ukraine’s future membership. Starting the accession process at the summit in Lithuania this week would be ‘premature’, Biden said. Ukraine still needs to meet other qualifications for membership, ‘including democratisation’, the president added.

Biden’s hesitation is misplaced. The Vilnius summit offers an opportunity for Nato to redress the historic mistake of the 2008 meeting in Bucharest. Back then, Nato failed to offer membership action plans to Ukraine and Georgia and thus invited Russian aggression – including the current war. 

This latest summit is an opportunity to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an early end by signalling that Kyiv would join as soon as the war concludes; ideally this would happen through a formal cease-fire or a peace agreement. Prevaricating about Ukraine’s path to Nato, in contrast though, tells the country that for the foreseeable future they can expect to face the Russian threat alone.