Ukrainian delegation comes to DC ahead of NATO Summit

The upcoming NATO Summit is of particular concern to Ukraine – and to many NATO members who are concerned about Washington’s resistance to Ukraine’s ascension to membership.

After the U.S. saw to it that all Ukraine got out of the NATO Summit in Lithuania last summer were rather vague assurances of some type of “bridge” to NATO membership, many members are pushing for more.

So, next week NATO will be in Washington to celebrate the Alliance’s 75th anniversary.  It would be nice if more could come out of the session than anniversary toasts and back-slapping.

In an effort to improve the outcome Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Energy Minister German Galushchenko, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adviser, Andriy Yermak, will spend Tuesday with Biden administration officials trying to work through some of issues before the summit.

They will be meeting with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and others, but the reality is Kyiv will not receive an invitation to join the Alliance due to U.S. resistance.

Washington’s objective is to signal strong support for Ukraine but remain deterred by Putin’s huffing and puffing outrage over any thought of Ukraine joining NATO.

If you want to know what should happen at this summit watch the U.S.-Ukraine’s webinar from last Friday here - https://youtu.be/wveJfCFuVp0

[Regarding what NATO could and should do I reference Ian Brezinski’s comments especially.]

Yes, the U.S. and Ukraine signed a 10-year security agreement last month that commits the U.S. to helping build Ukraine’s defense industry and continuing American military aid for those 10 years. But, like the infamous Budapest Memorandum, the agreement is not a treaty and provides plenty of wiggle room for this Administration and future Administrations to ignore the deal, just as we have the Budapest Memorandum.

Nevertheless, there could be some good things coming out of the pre-meeting and the summit, but Washington is still deterred by Putin’s threats – as it has been since he invaded Ukraine in 2014.

On a more positive note, there have been and will be meetings that are a part of a larger effort to help Ukraine rebuild its domestic defense industry.

Bottom line – we will have to wait and see but expectations for the Summit doing the right thing regarding Ukraine will be low.

ROBERT MCCONNELL

Co-Founder, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation

Director of External Affairs, Friends of Ukraine Network

The views expressed here are Mr. McConnell’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation or the Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN).

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