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US President Joe Biden said that his country will not take special measures to facilitate Ukraine’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“They should apply the same criteria,” Biden said. “This means that we will not make it easy” for the country facing a Russian military attack to join.
Biden described sending a first set of Russian nuclear warheads to Belarus as “totally irresponsible”.
This step is the result of an agreement announced in March between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko.
Biden’s remarks come as NATO prepares to hold its annual summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11 and 12.
Biden’s statement reflects the well-known position on the division within the alliance on the issue of accelerating accession, which Washington, Germany and Hungary oppose.
The Secretary-General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, announced – yesterday, Friday – that Ukraine will not be invited to join the alliance during the summit, with his assertion that Kiev will become “a member of the alliance at a certain time.”
Despite this, the alliance hopes to hold the first meeting of the Atlantic Council and Ukraine in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the summit.
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