NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged on Wednesday that alliance members were divided on the issue of Ukraine’s membership.
“On that issue there are different views in the alliance and of course the only way to make decisions in NATO is by consensus,” Stoltenberg said at a conference in Brussels.
Ukraine, backed by NATO member States in Eastern Europe, has been calling for NATO leaders to send a clear message at their July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, that Kyiv will be able to join after the war with Russia ends.
Stoltenberg said he was going to have phone conversations later on Wednesday about the way forward and how to respond to Ukraine’s wish to join Nato.
“No one is able to tell you exactly what will be the final decision at the Vilnius summit on this issue,” he said.
The USA and many other allies are refusing to go any further than the Bucharest declaration, several alliance diplomats told French news agency AFP. At an alliance summit in 2008 in Bucharest, leaders said Ukraine and Georgia would become members, but gave no indication of a timetable.
NATO membership would allow Ukraine to invoke the collective defence clause of the alliance’s Article 5, which obliges all allies to defend it in the event of an attack.
Discussions are under way to “build the basis for a compromise on membership,” one of the alliance diplomats said. One possibility could be to provide Kyiv with security guarantees like those given to Sweden, whose membership is blocked by Turkey and Hungary.
“The ultimate security guarantee will be NATO membership, but … that’s not something that will happen in the midst of a war,” Stoltenberg stressed.
